UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

BY 
SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

VOL.  II. 


(TALES  OF  A  GRANDFATHER.) 


BY 


SIR  WALTER   SCOTT. 


NEW  EDITION. 


VOL.  II. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PORTER   &   COATES. 


**? 


S43 

V,5b 

-:-  CAL. 

DEDICATION. 

TO  HUGH  LITTLEJOHN,  Esq 

MY   DEAR   CHILD, 

I  NOW  address  to  you  two  volumes  of  Scottish  Stones, 
which  brings  aown  the  History  of  that  Country  from  the 
period  when  England  and  Scotland  became  subject  to 
the  same  King  until  that  of  the  Union,  when  they  were 
finally  united  into  one  Kingdom.  That  you,  and  chil- 
dren of  your  age,  may  read  these  little  books  with  plea- 
sure and  improvement,  is  the  desire  and  hope  of, 

My  dearest  Child, 
Your  very  affectionate  Grandfather, 

WALTER  SCOTT. 
Abbotsford,  15th  Octobe~,  1828. 


HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND 

BY  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 
PART  FIRST. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Progress  of  Civilization  in  Society. 

THE  kind  reception  which  the  former  Tales,  written 
for  your  amusement  and  edification,  have  met  with,  in- 
duces me,  my  dear  little  boy,  to  make  an  attempt  to  bring 
down  my  historical  narrative  to  a  period,  when  the  union 
of  England  and  Scotland  became  as  complete,  in  the 
intimacy  of  feelings  and  interests,  as  law  had  declared 
and  intended  them  to  be,  and  as  the  mutual  advantage  ol 
both  countries  had  long,  though  in  vain,  required. 

We  left  off,  you  may  recollect,  when  James,  the  sixth 
of  that  name  who  reigned  in  Scotland,  succeeded,  by  the 
death  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  the  throne  of  England,  and 
thus  became  Sovereign  of  the  whole  Island  of  Britain. 
Ireland  also  belonged  to  his  dominions,  having  been  part- 
ly subdued  by  the  arms  of  the  English,  and  partly  sur- 
rendered to  them  by  the  submission  of  the  natives.  There 
had  been,  during  Elizabeth's  time,  many  wars  with  the 
native  Lords  and  Chiefs  of  the  country  ;  but  the  English 
finally  obtained  the  undisturbed  and  undispute  possession 
of  that  rich  and  beautiful  island.  Thus  the  three  king- 
doms, formed  by  the  Britannic  Islands,  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  one  Sovereign,  who  was  thus  fixed  in  a  situa- 
tion of  strength  and  security,  which  was  at  that  time  tho 
lot  of  few  monarchs  in  Europe. 


6  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

King  James's  power  was  the  greater,  that  the  progress 
of  human  society  had  greatly  augmented  the  wisdom  of 
his  statesmen  and  counsellors,  and  given  strength  and 
stability  to  those  laws  which  preserve  the  poor  and  help- 
less against  the  encroachments  of  the  wealthy  and  the 
powerful. 

But  Master  Littlejohn  may  ask  me  what  I  mean  by  th<; 
Progress  of  Human  Society  ;  and  it  is  my  duty  to  ex- 
plain it  as  intelligibly  as  I  can. 

If  you  consider  the  lower  order  of  animals,  such  as 
birds,  dogs,  cattle,  or  any  class  of  the  brute  creation,  you 
will  find  that  they  are,  to  ever/  useful  purpose,  deprived 
of  the  means  of  communicating  their  ideas  to  each  other. 
They  have  cries  indeed,  by  which  they  express  pleasure 
or  pain — fear  or  hope — but  they  have  no  formed  speech 
by  which,  like  men,  they  can  converse  together.  God 
Almighty,  who  called  all  creatures  into  existence  in  such 
manner  as  best  pleased  him,  has  imparted  to  those  inferior 
animals  no  power  of  improving  their  situation,  or  of  com- 
municating with  each  other.  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  dif- 
ference in  the  capacity  of  these  inferior  classes  of  crea- 
tion. But  though  one  bird  may  build  her  nest  more  neat- 
ly than  one  of  a  different  class,  or  one  dog  may  be  more 
clever  and  more  capable  of  learning  tricks  than  another, 
yet,  as  it  wants  language  to  explain  to  its  comrades  the 
advantages  which  it  may  possess,  its  knowledge  dies  with 
it  ;  thus  birds  and  dogs  continue  to  use  the  same  general 
habits  proper  to  the  species,  which  they  have  done  since 
the  creation  of  the  world.  In  other  words,  animals  have 
n  certain  degree  of  sense  which  is  termed  instinct,  which 
teaches  them  to  seek  their  food,  and  provide  for  their 
safety  and  comfort,  in  nearly  the  same  manner  as  their 
parents  did  before  them  since  the  beginning  of  time,  but 
does  not  enable  them  to  communicate  to  their  successors 
any  improvements,  or  to  derive  any  increase  of  knowledge. 
Thus  you  may  remark,  that  the  example  of  the  swallow, 
ihe  wren,  and  other  birds,  which  cover  their  nests  with  a 
roof  to  protect  them  against  the  rain,  is  never  imitated  by 
other  classes,  who  have  continued  to  construct  theirs  in 


TKOGKKSS    OF    CIVILIZATION'.  7 

the  same  exposed  and  imperfect  manner  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world. 

Another  circumstance,  which  is  calculated  to  prevent 
the  inferior  animals  from  rising  above  the  rank  which  they 
are  designed  to  hold,  is  the  short  time  during  which  they 
remain  under  the  care  of  their  parents.  A  few  weeks 
give  the  young  nestlings  of  every  season,  strength  and 
inclination  to  leave  the  protection  of  the  parents  ;  the 
tender  attachment  which  has  subsisted  while  the  young 
bird  was  unable  to  provide  for  itself  without  assistance  is 
entirely  broken  off,  and  in  a  week  or  two  more  they  prob- 
ably do  not  know  each  other.  The  young  of  the  sheep, 
the  cow,  and  the  horse,  attend  and  feed  by  the  mother's 
side  for  a  certain  short  period,  during  which  they  are  pro- 
tected by  her  care,  and  supported  by  her  milk  ;  but  they 
have  no  sooner  attained  the  strength  necessary  to  defend 
themselves,  and  the  sense  to  provide  for  their  wants,  than 
they  separate  from  the  mother,  and  all  intercourse  between 
the  parent  and  her  offspring  is  closed  forever. 

Thus  each  separate  tribe  of  animals  retains  exactly  the 
same  station  in  the  general  order  of  the  universe  which 
was  occupied  by  its  predecessors ;  and  no  existing  gene- 
ration either  is,  or  can  be,  either  much  better  instructed, 
or  more  ignorant,  than  that  which  preceded  or  that  which 
is  to  come  after  it. 

It  is  widely  different  with  mankind.  God,  as  we  are 
told  in  Scripture,  was  pleased  to  make  man  after  his  own 
image.  By  this  you  are  not  to  understand  that  the  Cre- 
ator of  heaven  and  earth  has  any  visible  form  or  shape, 
to  which  the  human  body  bears  a  resemblance  ;  but  the 
meaning  is,  that  as  the  God  who  created  the  world  is  a 
spirit  invisible  and  incomprehensible,  so  he  joined  to  the 
human  frame  some  portion  of  an  essence  resembling  hio 
own,  which  is  called  the  human  soul,  and  which,  while  the 
body  lives,  continues  to  animate  and  direct  its  motions, 
and  on  the  dissolution  of  the  bodily  form  which  it  has 
•occupied,  returns  to  the  spiritual  world,  to  be  answerable 
for  the  good  and  evil  of  its  works  upon  earth.  Jt  is  there- 
fore impossible,  that  man,  possessing  this  knowledge  of 


6  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

right  and  wrong,  proper  to  a  spiritual  essence  resembling 
those  higher  orders  of  creation  whom  we  call  angels,  and 
having  some  affinity,  though  at  an  incalculable  distance, 
to  the  essence  of  the  Deity  himself,  should  have  been 
placed  under  the  same  limitations  in  point  of  progressive 
improvement  with  the  inferior  tribes,  who  are  neither  re- 
sponsible for  the  actions  which  they  perform  under  direc- 
tion of  their  instinct,  nor  capable,  by  any  exertion  of  their 
own,  of  altering  or  improving  their  condition  in  the  scale 
of  creation.  So  far  is  this  from  being  the  case  with  man, 
that  the  bodily  organs  of  the  human  frame  bear  such  a 
correspondence  with  the  properties  of  his  soul,  as  to  gi^e 
him  the  means,  when  they  are  properly  used,  of  enlarging 
his  powers,  and  becoming  wiser  and  more  skilful  from  hour 
to  hour,  as  long  as  his  life  permits  ;  and  not  only  is  this 
the  case,  but  tribes  and  nations  of  men  assembled  together 
for  the  purpose  of  mutual  protection  and  defence,  have 
the  same  power  of  alteration  and  improvement,  and  may, 
if  circumstances  are  favourable,  go  on  by  gradual  steps 
from  being  a  wild  horde  of  naked  barbarians  till  they  be- 
come a  powerful  and  civilized  people. 

The  capacity  of  amending  our  condition  by  increase 
of  knowledge,  which,  in  fact,  affords  the  means  by  which 
man  rises  to  be  the  lord  of  creation,  is  grounded  on  the 
human  race  possessing  those  advantages  which  he  alone 
enjoys.  Let  us  look  somewhat  closely  into  this,  my  dear 
boy,  for  it  involves  some  truths  equally  curious  and  im- 
portant. 

If  man,  though  possessed  of  the  same  immortal  es- 
sence or  soul,  which  enables  him  to  choose  and  refuse,  to 
judge  and  condemn,  to  reason  and  conclude,  were  to  be 
void  of  the  power  of  communicating  the  conclusions  to 
which  his  reasoning  had  conducted  him,  it  is  clear  that  the 
progr  s  of  each  individual  in  knowledge,  could  be  only 
in  proportion  to  his  own  observation  and  his  own  powers 
of  reasoning.  But  the  gift  of  speech  enables  any  one  to 
communicate  to  others  whatever  idea  of  improvement  oc- 
curs to  him,  which,  instead  of  dying  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Individual  by  whom  it  was  frst  thought  of,  becomes  a  part 


PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION.  V 

of  the  stock  of  knowledge  proper  to  the  whola  commu- 
nity, which  is  increased  and  rendered  generally  and  ef- 
fectua'ly  useful  by  the  accession  of  further  information, 
as  opportunities  occur,  or  men  of  reflecting  and  inventive 
minds  arise  in  the  state.  This  use  of  spoken  language, 
therefore,  which  so  gloriously  distinguishes  man  from  the 
beasts  that  perish,  is  the  primary  means  of  introducing 
and  increasing  knowledge  in  infant  communities. 

Another  early  cause  of  the  improvement  of  human  so- 
ciety is  the  incapacity  of  children  to  act  for  themselves, 
rendering  the  attention  and  protection  of  parents  to  their 
offspring  necessary  for  so  long  a  period.  Even  where  the 
food  which  the  earth  affords  without  cultivation,  such  as 
fruits  and  herbs,  is  mo  t  plentifully  supplied,  children  re- 
main too  helpless  for  many  years  to  be  capable  of  gather- 
ing it,  and  providing  for  their  own  support.  This  is  still 
more  the  case  where  food  has  to  be  procured  by  hunting, 
fishing,  or  cultivating  the  soil,  occupations  requiring  a  de- 
gree of  skill  and  personal  strength,  which  children  cannot 
possess  until  they  are  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old.  It 
follows,  as  a  law  of  nature,  that  instead  of  leaving  their 
parents  at  an  early  age,  like  the  young  birds  or  quadru- 
peds, the  youth  of  the  human  species  necessarily  remain 
under  the  protection  of  their  father  and  mother  for  many 
years,  during  which  they  acquire  all  the  knowledge  the 
parents  have  to  teach.  It  arises  also  from  this  wise  ar- 
rangement, that  the  love  and  affection  between  the  off- 
spring and  the  parents,  which  among  the  brute  creation 
is  the  produce  of  mere  instinct,  and  continues  for  a  very 
short  time,  becomes  in  the  human  race  a  deep  and  per- 
manent feeling,  founded  on  the  attachment  of  the  parents, 
ihe  gratitude  of  the  children,  and  the  effect  of  long  habit 
*n  both. 

For  these  reasons,  it  usually  happens,  that  children  feel 
no  desire  to  desert  their  parents,  but  remain  inhabitants  ot 
the  same  huts  in  which  they  were  born,  and  take  up  the 
task  of  labouring  for  subsistence  in  their  turn.  One  or 
two  such  families  gradually  unite  together,  and  avail 
themselves  of  each  other's  company  for  mutual  defence 


10  PROGRK.SS    OF    C  I VIL1ZATIO  V. 

and  assi  ance.  This  is  the  earliest  stage  of  human  soci- 
ety, and  some  savages  have  been  in  this  condition  so  very 
rude  and  ignorant,  that  they  may  be  said  to  be  little  wiser 
or  better  than  a  herd  of  animals.  The'  natives  of  New 
South  Wales,  for  example,  are,  even  at  present,  in  the 
very  lowest  scale  of  humanity,  and  ignorant  of  every  art 
which  can  add  comfort  or  decency  to  human  life.  These 
unfortunate  savages  use  no  clothes,  construct  no  cabins  or 
huts,  and  are  ignorant  even  of  the  manner  of  chasing  an- 
imals or  catching  fish,  unless  such  of  the  latter  as  are  left 
by  the  tide,  or  which  are  found  on  the  rocks  ;  they  feed 
upon  the  most  disgusting  substances,  snakes,  worms,  mag- 
gots, and  whatever  trash  falls  in  their  way.  They  know 
indeed  how  to  kindle  a  fire — in  that  respect  only  they 
have  stepped  beyond  the  deepest  ignorance  to  which  man 
can  be  subjected — but  they  have  not  learned  how  to  boil 
water  ;  and  when  they  see  Europeans  perform  this  ordi- 
nary operation,  they  have  been  known  to  run  away  in 
great  terror.  Voyagers  tell  us  of  other  savages  who  do 
not  even  know  the  use  of  fire,  and  who  maintain  a  mis- 
erable existence  by  subsisting  on  shell-fish  eaten  raw. 

And  yet,  my  dear  boy,  out  of  this  miserable  and  de- 
graded state,  which  seems  worse  than  that  of  the  animals, 
man  has  the  means  and  power  to  rise  into  the  high  place 
for  which  Providence  hath  destined  him.  In  proportion 
as  opportunities  occur,  these  savage  tribes  acquire  the  arts 
of  civilized  life  ;  they  construct  huts  to  shelter  them 
against  the  weather  ;  they  invent  arms  for  destroying  the 
wild  beasts  by  which  they  are  annoyed,  and  for  killing 
those  whose  flesh  is  adapted  for  food  ;  and  they  plant 
fruit  trees  and  sow  grain  as  soon  as  they  discover  that  the 
productions  of  nature  most  necessary  for  their  comfort 
may  be  increased  by  labour  and  industry.  Thus,  the 
progress  of  human  society,  unless  it  is  interrupted  by  some 
unfortunate  circumstances,  continues  to  advance,  and  ev- 
ery new  generation,  without  losing  any  of  the.  advantages 
already  attained,  goes  on  to  acquire  others  which  wer*7 
unknown  to  the  precedina;  one. 


PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION.  11 

For  instance,  when  three  or  four  wandering  families  of 
savages  have  settled  in  one  place,  and  begun  to  cultivate 
the  ground,  and  collect  their  huts  into  a  hamlet  or  village, 
they  usually  agree  in  choosing  some  chief  to  be  their 
judge  and  the  arbiter  of  their  disputes  in  time  of  peace, 
their  leader  and  captain  when  they  go  to  war  with  other 
tribes.  This  is  the  foundation  of  a  monarchical  govern- 
ment. Or,  perhaps,  their  public  affairs  are  directed  by  a 
council,  or  senate,  of  the  oldest  and  wisest  of  the  tribe — 
this  is  the  origin  of  a  republican  state.  At  all  events,  in 
one  way  or  other,  they  put  themselves  under  something 
resembling  a  regular  government,  and  obtain  the  protec- 
tion of  such  laws  as  may  prevent  them  from  quarrelling 
with  one  another. 

Other  important  alterations  are  introduced  by  time. 
At  first,  no  doubt,  the  members  of  the  community  store 
their  fruits  and  the  produce  of  the  chase  in  common.  But 
shortly  after,  reason  teaches  them  that  the  individual  who 
has  bestowed  labour  and  trouble  upon  anything  so  as  to 
render  it  productive,  acquires  a  right  of  property,  as  it  is 
called,  in  the  produce,  which  his  efforts  have  in  a  manner 
called  into  existence.  Thus,  it  is  soon  acknowledged, 
that  he  who  has  planted  a  tree  has  the  sole  right  of  con- 
suming its  fruit ;  and  that  he  who  has  sown  a  field  of  corn 
has  the  exclusive  title  to  gather  in  the  grain.  Without 
the  labour  of  the  planter  and  husbandman,  there  would 
have  been  no  apples  or  wheat,  and  therefore  these  are 
justly  entitled  to  the  fruit  of  their  labour.  In  like  manner, 
the  state  itself  is  conceived  to  acquire  a  right  of  proper- 
ty in  the  fields  cultivated  by  its  members,  and  in  the  for- 
ests where  they  have  of  old  practised  the  rights  of  hunt- 
ing and  fishing.  If  men  of  a  different  tribe  enter  on  the 
territory  of  a  neighbouring  nation,  war  ensues  between 
them,  and  peace  is  made  by  agreeing  on  both  sides  to 
reasonable  conditions.  Thus  a  young  state  extends  its 
possessions  ;  and  by  its  communications  with  other  tribes 
lays  the  foundation  of  public  laws  for  the  regulation  o 
iheir  behaviour  to  each  other  in  peace  and  in  war. 


|2  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILISATION 

Other  arrangements  no  less  important  are  produced, 
tending  to  increase  the  difference  between  mankind  in  theii 
wild  and  original  state,  and  that  which  they  assume  m  the/ 
progress  of  civilization.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  is, 
the  separation  of  the  citizens  into  different  classes  of  soci- 
ety, and  the  introduction  of  the  use  of  money.  I  will  try 
to  render  these  great  changes  intelligible  to  you. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  society,  every  member  of  the 
community  may  be  said  to  supply  all  his  wants  by  his  own 
personal  labour.  He  acquires  his  food  by  the  chase — he 
sows  and  reaps  his  own  grain — he  gathers  his  own  fruit — 
he  cuts  the  skin  which  forms  his  dress  so  as  to  fit  his  own 
person — he  makes  the  sandals  or  buskins  which  protect 
his  feet.  He  is,  therefore,  better  or  worse  accommodated 
exactly  in  proportion  to  the  personal  skill  and  industry 
which  he  can  apply  to  that  purpose.  But  it  is  discover- 
ed in  process  of  time,  that  one  man  has  particular  dex- 
terity in  hunting,  being,  we  shall  suppose,  young,  active, 
and  enterprising  ;  another,  older  and  of  a  more  staid 
character,  has  peculiar  skill  in  tilling  the  ground,  or  in 
managing  cattle  and  flocks ;  a  third,  lame  perhaps,  or  in- 
firm, has  a  happy  talent  for  cutting  out  and  stitching  to- 
gether garments,  or  for  shaping  and  sewing  such  shoes  as 
are  worn.  It  becomes,  therefore,  for  the  advantage  of  all, 
that  the  first  shall  attend  to  nothing  but  hunting,  the  sec- 
ond confine  himself  to  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  and  the 
third  remain  at  home  to  make  clothes  and  shoes.  But 
then  it  follows,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  that  the 
huntsman  must  give  to  the  man  who  cultivates  the  land  a 
part  of  his  venison  and  skins,  if  he  desires  to  have  grain 
of  which  to  make  bread,  or  a  cow  to  furnish  his  family 
with  milk  j  and  that  both  the  hunter  and  the  agriculturist 
must  give  a  share  of  the  produce  of  the  chase,  and  a  pro- 
portion of  the  grain,  to  the  third  man,  to  obtain  from  him 
clothes  and  shoes.  Each  is  thus  accommodated  with  what 
he  wants,  a  great  deal  better,  and  more  easily,  by  every 
one  following  a  separate  occupation,  than  they  could  pos- 
sibly have  been,  had  each  of  the  three  been  hunter,  ar- 
mur,  and  tailor,  in  his  own  person  practising  two  of  the 


PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION*.  13 

trades  awkwardly  and  unwillingly,  instead  of  confining 
himself  to  that  which  he  perfectly  understands,  and  pur- 
sues with  success.  This  mode  of  accommodation  is  call- 
ed barter,  and  is  the  earliest  kind  of  traffic  by  which  men 
exchange  their  property  with  each  other,  and  satisfy  their 
wants  by  parting  with  their  superfluities. 

But  in  process  of  time,  barter  is  found  inconvenient, 
The  husbandman,  perhaps,  has  no  use  for  shoes  when 
the  shoemaker  is  in  need  of  corn,  or  the  shoemaker  may 
not  want  furs  or  venison  when  the  hunter  desires  to  have 
shoes.  To  remedy  this,  almost  all  nations  have  introduced 
the  use  of  what  is  called  money  ;  that  is  to  say,  they 
have  fixed  on  some  particular  substance  capable  of  being 
divided  into  small  portions,  which,  having  itself  no  intrin- 
sic value,  is  nevertheless  received  as  a  representative  of 
the  value  of  all  commodities.  Particular  kinds  of  shells 
are  used  as  money  in  some  countries  ;  in  others,  leather, 
cloth,  or  iron,  are  employed  ;  but  gold  and  silver,  divid- 
ed into  small  portions,  are  used  for  this  important  purpose 
almost  all  over  the  world. 

That  you  may  understand  the  use  of  this  circulating 
representative  of  the  value  of  commodities,  and  compre- 
hend the  convenience  which  it  affords,  let  us  suppose  that 
the  hunter,  as  we  formerly  said,  wanted  a  pair  of  shoes, 
and  the  shoemaker  had  no  occasion  for  venison,  but  want- 
ed some  corn,  while  the  husbandman,  not  desiring  to  have 
shoes,  was  in  need  of  some  other  commodity.  Here  are 
three  men,  each  desirous  of  some  article  of  necessity,  or 
convenience,  which  he  cannot  obtain  by  barter,  because 
the  party  whom  he  has  to  deal  with  does  not  want  the 
commodity  which  he  has  to  offer.  But  supposing  the  use 
of  money  introduced,  and  its  value  acknowledged,  these 
three  persons  are  accommodated  by  means  of  it  in  the 
amplest  manner  possible.  The  shoemaker  does  not  want 
the  venison  which  the  hunter  offers  for  sale,  but  some 
other  man  in  the  village  is  willing  to  purchase  it  for  five 
pieces  of  silver — the  hunter  sells  his  commodity,  and  goes 
to  the  shoemaker,  who,  though  he  would  not  barter  the 


14  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION. 

shoes  for  the  venison  which  he  did  not  want,  readily  sells 
tiiem  for  the  money,  and,  going  with  it  to  the  farmer,  buys 
from  him  the  quantity  of  corn  he  needs  ;  while  the  far- 
mer, in  his  turn,  purchases  whatever  he  is  in  want  of,  or 
if  he  requires  nothing  at  the  time,  lays  the  pieces  of  money 
aside,  to  use  when  he  has  occasion. 

The  invention  of  money  is  followed  by  the  gradual 
rise  of  trade.  There  are  men  who  make  it  their  busi- 
ness to  buy  various  articles,  and  sell  them  again  for  pro- 
fit ;  that  is,  they  sell  them  somewhat  dearer  than  they 
bought  them.  This  is  convenient  for  all  parties,  since 
the  original  proprietors  are  willing  to  sell  their  commod- 
ities to  those  store-keepers,  or  shopkeepers,  at  a  low  rate, 
to  be  saved  the  trouble  of  hawking  them  about  in  search 
of  a  customer ;  while  the  public  in  general  are  equally  wil- 
ling to  buy  from  such  intermediate  dealers,  because  they 
are  sure  to  be  immediately  supplied  with  what  they  want. 

The  numerous  transactions  occasioned  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  money,  together  with  other  circumstances,  soon 
destroy  the  equality  of  ranks  which  prevails  in  an  early 
stage  of  society.  Some  men  become  rich,  and  hire  the 
assistance  of  others  to  do  their  work  ;  some  are  poor, 
and  sink  into  the  capacity  of  servants.  Some  men  are 
wise  and  skilful,  and,  distinguishing  themselves  by  their 
exploits  in  battle  and  their  counsels  in  peace,  rise  to  the 
management  of  public  affairs.  Others,  and  much  great- 
er numbers,  have  no  more  valour  than  to  follow  where 
they  are  led,  and  no  more  talent  than  to  act  as  they  are 
commanded.  These  last  sink,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
into  obscurity,  while  the  others  become  generals  and 
statesmen.  The  attainment  of  learning  tends  also  to  in- 
crease the  difference  of  ranks.  Those  who  receive  a 
good  education  by  the  care  of  their  parents,  or  possess 
so  much  strength  of  mind  and  readiness  of  talent  as  to 
educate  themselves,  become  separated  from  the  more 
ignorant  of  the  community,  and  form  a  distinct  class  and 
condition  of  their  own  ;  and  hold  no  more  communica- 
tion with  the  others  than  is  absolutely  necessary.  In  this 
way  the  whole  order  of  society  is  changed,  and  instead 


PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION.  15 

of  presenting  the  uniform  appearance  of  one  large  family, 
each  member  of  which  has  nearly  the  same  rights,  it 
seems  to  resemble  a  confederacy  or  association  of  differ- 
ent ranks,  classes,  and  conditions  of  men,  each  rank  fill 
ing  up  a  certain  department  in  society,  and  discharging  a 
class  of  duties  totally  distinct  from  those  of  the  others. 
The  steps  by  which  a  nation  advances  from  the  natural 
and  simple  state  which  we  have  just  described,  into  the 
more  complicated  system  in  which  ranks  are  distinguish- 
ed from  each  other,  are  called  the  progress  of  society,  or 
of  civilization.  It  is  attended,  like  all  things  human,  with 
much  of  evil  as  well  as  good  ;  but  it  seems  to  be  a  law 
of  our  moral  nature,  that,  faster  or  slower,  such  altera- 
tions must  take  place,  in  consequence  of  the  inventions 
and  improvements  of  succeeding  generations  of  mankind. 

Another  alteration,  productive  of  consequences  not 
less  important,  arises  out  of  the  gradual  progress  towards 
civilization.  In  the  early  state  of  society,  every  man  in 
the  tribe  is  a  warrior,  and  liable  to  serve  as  such  when  the 
country  requires  his  assistance  ;  but  in  progress  of  time 
the  pursuit  of  the  military  art  is,  at  least  on  all  ordinary 
occasions,  confined  to  bands  of  professional  soldiers, 
whose  business  it  is  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  state,  when 
required,  in  consideration  of  which  they  are  paid  by  the 
community,  the  other  members  of  which  are  thus  left  to 
the  uninterrupted  pursuit  of  their  own  peaceful  occupa- 
tions. This  alteration  is  attended  with  more  important 
consequences  than  we  can  at  present  pause  to  enumerate. 

We  have  said  that  those  mighty  changes  which  bring 
men  to  dwell  in  castles  and  cities  instead  of  huts  and 
caves,  and  enable  them  to  cultivate  the  sciences  and  sub- 
due the  elements,  instead  of  being  plunged  in  ignorance 
and  superstition,  are  owing  primarily  to  the  reason  with 
which  God  has  graciously  endowed  the  human  race  ;  and 
in  a  second  degree  to  the  power  of  speech,  by  which  we 
can  communicate  to  each  other  the  result  of  our  own 
reflections. 

But  it  is  evident  that  society,  when  its  advance  is  de 
pendent  on  oral  tradition  alone,  must  be  liable  to  many 


16  PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATIONS 

interruptions.  The  imagination  of  the  speaker,  and  the 
dulness  or  want  of  comprehension  of  the  heirer,  may 
lead  to  many  errors ;  and  it  is  generally  found  that  know- 
ledge makes  but  very  slow  progress  until  the  art  of  writ- 
ing is  discovered,  by  which  a  fixed,  accurate,  and  sub- 
stantial form  can  be  given  to  the  wisdom  of  past  ages. 
When  this  noble  art  is  attained,  there  is  a  sure  founda- 
tion laid  for  the  preservation  and  increase  of  knowledge. 
The  record  is  removed  from  the  inaccurate  recollection 
of  the  aged,  and  placed  in  a  safe,  tangible,  and  imperish- 
able form,  which  may  be  subjected  to  the  inspection  of 
various  persons,  until  the  sense  is  completely  explained 
and  comprehended,  with  the  least  possible  chance  of 
doubt  or  uncertainty. 

By  the  art  of  writing,  a  barrier  is  fixed  against  those 
violent  changes  so  apt  to  take  place  in  the  early  stages  of 
society,  by  which  all  the  fruits  of  knowledge  are  fre- 
quently destroyed,  as  those  of  the  earth  are  by  a  hurri- 
cane. Suppose,  for  example,  a  case  which  frequently 
happens  in  the  early  history  of  mankind,  that  some  na- 
tion which  has  made  considerable  progress  in  the  arts,  is 
invaded  and  subdued  by  another  which  is  more  powerful 
and  numerous,  though  more  ignorant  than  themselves. 
It  is  clear,  that  in  this  case,  as  the  rude  and  ignorant  vic- 
tors would  set  no  value  on  the  knowledge  of  the  van- 
quished, it  would,  if  intrusted  only  to  the  memory  of  the 
individuals  of  the  conquered  people,  be  gradually  lost 
and  forgotten.  But  if  their  useful  discoveries  were  re- 
corded in  writing,  the  manuscripts  in  which  they  were 
described,  though  they  might  be  neglected  for  a  season, 
would,  if  preserved  at  all,  probably  attract  attention  at 
some  more  fortunate  period.  It  was  thus  that,  when  the 
empire  of  Rome,  having  reached  the  utmost  period  of 
its  grandeur,  was  broken  down  and  conquered  by  nume- 
rous tribes  of  ignorant  though  brave  barbarians,  those  ad- 
mirable works  of  classical  learning,  on  which  such  value  i« 
justly  placed  in  the  present  day,  were  rescued  from  total 
destruction  and  oblivion  by  manuscript  copies  preserved 
l»v  chance  in  the  old  libraries  of  churches  and  convents. 


PROGRESS    OF    CIVILIZATION.  11 

[t  may  indeed  be  taken  as  an  almost  infallible  maxim,  that 
no  nation  can  make  any  great  progress  in  useful  know- 
ledge or  civilization,  until  their  improvement  can  be  ren- 
dered stable  and  permanent  by  the  invention  of  writing. 

Another  discovery,  however,  almost  as  important  as 
that  of  writing,  was  made  during  the  fifteenth  century. 
I  mean  the  invention  of  printing.  Writing  with  the  hand 
must  be  always  a  slow,  difficult,  and  expensive  operation  ; 
and  when  the  manuscript  is  finished,  it  is  perhaps  laid 
aside  among  the  stores  of  some  great  library,  where  it 
may  be  neglected  by  students,  and  must,  at  any  rate,  be 
accessible  to  very  few  persons,  and  subject  to  be  destroy- 
ed by  numerous  accidents.  But  the  admirable  invention 
of  printing  enables  the  artist  to  make  a  thousand  copies 
from  the  original  manuscript,  by  having  them  stamped 
upon  paper,  in  far  less  time  and  with  less  expense  than  it 
would  cost  to  make  half  a  dozen  such  copies  with  the  pen. 
From  the  period  of  this  glorious  discovery,  knowledge  of 
every  kind  might  be  said  to  be  brought  out  of  the  dark- 
ness of  cloisters  and  universities,  where  it  was  known 
only  to  a  few  scholars,  into  the  broad  light  of  day,  where 
its  treasures  were  accessible  to  all  men. 

The  Bible  itself,  in  which  wo  find  the  rules  of  eternal 
life,  as  well  as  a  thousand  lessons  for  our  conduct  in  this 
world,  was,  before  the  invention  of  printing,  totally  inac- 
cessible to  all,  save  the  priests  of  Rome,  who  found  it 
their  interest  to  discourage  the  perusal  of  the  Scriptures 
by  any  save  their  own  order,  and  thus  screened  from  dis- 
covery those  alterations  and  corruptions,  which  the  in- 
ventions of  ignorant  and  designing  men  had  introduced 
into  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the  gospel.  But  when, 
by  means  of  printing,  the  copies  of  the  Bible  became  so 
numerous,  that  every  one,  above  the  most  wretched  pov- 
erty, could,  at  a  cheap  price,  possess  himself  of  a  copy 
of  the  blessed  rule  of  life,  there  was  a  general  appear 
from  the  errors  and  encroachments  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  to  the  Divine  Word  on  which  they  professed  to 
be  founded  j  a  treasure  formerly  concealed  from  the 
881 


PROGRESS    OF   CIVILIZATION. 

public,  but  now  placed  within  the  reach  of  eveij  man. 
whether  of  the  clergy  or  laity.  The  consequence  of 
these  inquiries,  which  printing  alone  could  have  rendered 
practicable,  was  the  rise  of  the  happy  Reformation  of  the 
Christian  church. 

The  same  noble  art  made  knowledge  of  a  temporal 
kind  as  accessible  as  that  which  concerned  religion. 
Whatever  works  of  history,  science,  morality,  or  enter- 
tainment, seemed  likely  to  instruct  or  amuse  the  reader, 
were  printed  and  distributed  among  the  people  at  large 
by  printers  and  booksellers,  who  had  a  profit  by  doing  so. 
Thus,  the  possibility  of  important  discoveries  being  for- 
gotten in  the  course  of  years,  or  of  the  destruction  of 
useful  arts,  or  elegant  literature,  by  the  loss  of  the  records 
in  which  they  are  preserved,  was  in  a  great  measure  re- 
moved. 

In  a  word,  the  printing-press  is  a  contrivance  which 
enables  any  one  individual  to  address  his  whole  fellow- 
subjects  on  any  topic  which  he  tlmiks  important,  and 
which  enables  a  whole  nation  to  listen  to  the  voice  of 
sueh  individual,  however  obscure,  with  the  same  ease  and 
greater  certainty  of  understanding  what  he  says,  than  i{ 
a  chief  of  Indians  were  haranguing  the  tribe  at  his  coun- 
cil-fire. Nor  is  the  important  difference  to  be.  forgotten, 
that  the  orator  can  only  speak  to  the  person  present, 
while  the  author  of  a  book  addresses  himself,  not  only  to 
the  race  now  in  existence,  but  to  all  succeeding  genera- 
tions, while  his  work  shall  be  held  in  estimation. 

I  have  thus  endeavoured  to  trace  the  steps  by  which  a 
general  civilization  is  found  to  take  place  in  nations  with 
more  or  less  rapidity,  as  laws  and  institutions,  or  external 
circumstances,  favourable  or  otherwise,  advance  or  re- 
tard the  increase  of  knowledge,  and  by  the  course  of 
which  man,  endowed  with  reason,  and  destined  for  im- 
mortality, gradually  improves  the  condition  in  which 
Providence  has  placed  him,  while  the  inferior  animals 
continue  to  live  by  means  of  the  same,  or  nearly  the 
same,  instincts  of  self-preservation,  which  have  directed 
their  species  in  all  its  descents  since  the  creation. 


ILL    TEMPER    OF   ELIZABETH.  19 

I  have  called  your  attention  at  some  length  to  this 
matter,  because  you  will  now  have  to  remark,  that  a  ma- 
terial change  had  gradually  and  slowly  taken  place,  both 
in  the  kingdom  of  England,  and  in  that  of  Scotland, 
when  their  long  quarrels  were  at  length,  in  appearance, 
ended,  by  the  accession  of  James  the  Sixth  of  Scotland 
to  the  English  crown,  which  he  held  under  the  title  of 
James  the  First  of  that  poweiful  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Infirmities  and  ill  temper  of  Elizabeth  in  her  lattei 
years — Accession  of  James  VI.  acceptable  on  that  ac- 
count to  the  English — Resort  of  Scotsmen  to  the 
Court  at  London — Quarrels  between  them  and  the 
English — Duelling — Duel  of  Stewart  and  Wharton 
— Attempt  by  Sir  John  Jlyres  to  assassinate  Lord  Her- 
bert— Murder  of  Turner,  a  Fencing-Master,  by  two 
Pages  of  Sanquhar,  and  Execution  of  the  three  mur- 
derers— Statute  against  Stabbing. 

THE  whole  island  of  Great  Britain  was  now  united 
under  one  king,  though  it  remained  in  effect  two  separate 
kingdoms,  governed  by  their  own  separate  constitutions, 
and  their  own  distinct  codes  of  laws,  and  liable  again  to 
be  separated,  in  case,  by  the  death  of  King  James  with- 
out issue,  the  kingdoms  might  have  been  claimed  by  dif- 
ferent heirs.  For  although  James  had  two  sons,  yet  there 
was  a  possibility  that  they  might  have  both  died  before 
their  father,  in  which  case  the  sceptres  of  England  and 
Scotland  must  have  passed  once  more  to  different  hands. 
The  Hamilton  family  would,  in  that  case,  have  succeed- 
ed to  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  the  next  heir  of 
Elizabeth  to  that  of  England.  Who  that  heir  was,  it 
might  have  been  found  difficult  to  determine. 

It  might  have  been  thought  that  James,  the  sovereign 
of  a  poor  and  barren  kingdom,  which  had  for  so  many 


20  ILL    TEMPER   OF    ELIZABETH. 

ages  maintained  an  almost  perpetual  war  in  England, 
would  have  met  with  a  prejudiced  and  unpleasant  recep- 
tion from  a  nation  long  accustomed  to  despise  the  Scots 
for  their  poverty,  and  to  regard  them  with  enmity  on  ac« 
count  of  their  constant  hostility  to  the  English  blood  and 
name.  It  might  have  been  supposed  also,  that  a  people 
so  proud  as  the  English,  and  having  so  many  justifiable 
reasons  for  their  pride,  would  have  regarded  with  an  evil 
eye  the  transference  of  the  sceptre  from  the  hand  of  the 
Tudors,  who  had  swayed  it  during  five  successive  reigns, 
to  those  of  a  Stewart,  descended  from  the  ancient  and 
determined  enemies  of  the  English  nation.  But  it  was 
the  wise  and  gracious  pleasure  of  Providence,  that  while 
so  many  reasons  existed  to  render  the  accession  of  James, 
and,  in  consequence,  the  union  of  the  two  crowns,  ob- 
noxious to  the  English  people,  others  should  occur,  which 
not  only  balanced,  but  completely  overpowered  those  ob- 
jections, as  well  in  the  minds  of  men  of  sense  and  edu- 
cation, as  in  the  judgment  of  the  populace,  who  are 
usually  averse  to  foreign  rulers,  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  they  are  such. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  after  a  long  and  glorious  reign,  had, 
in  her  latter  days,  become  much  more  cross  and  uncer- 
tain in  her  temper  than  had  been  the  case  in  her  youth, 
more  wilful  also,  and  more  inclined  to  exert  her  arbitrary 
power  on  slight  occasions.  One  peculiar  cause  of  offence 
was  her  obstinate  refusal  to  gratify  the  anxiety  of  her 
people,  by  making  any  arrangement  for  the  succession  to 
the  throne  after  her  death.  On  this  subject,  indeed,  she 
nursed  so  much  suspicion  and  jealousy,  as  gave  rise  to 
more  than  one  extraordinary  scene.  The  following  is  a 
whimsical  instance,  among  others,  of  her  unwillingness  to 
hear  of  anything  respecting  old  age  and  its  consequences. 

The  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  preaching  in  her  Majesty's 
presence,  took  occasion  from  his  text,  which  was  Psal 
xc.  ver.  12,  "  So  teach  us  to  number  our  day?,  that  we 
may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom,"  to  allude  to  the 
Queen's  advanced  period  of  life,  she  being  then  sixty- 
three,  and  to  the  consequent  infirmities  attending  upon 


IN    HER    LATTER    YEARS.  21 

old  age  ;  as  for  example,  when  the  grinders  shall  be  few 
in  number,  and  they  wax  dark  who  look  out  at  windows 
— when  the  daughters  of  singing  shall  be  abased,  and 
more  to  the  like  purpose.  With  the  tone  of  these  ad- 
monitions the  Queen  was  so  ill  satisfied,  that  she  flung 
open  the  window  of  the  closet  in  which  she  sat,  and  told 
the  preacher  to  keep  his  admonitions  to  himself,  since  she 
plainly  saw  the  greatest  clerks  (meaning,  scholars)  were 
not  the  wisest  men.  Nor  did  her  displeasure  end  here. 
The  bishop  was  commanded  to  confine  himself  to  his 
house  for  a  time,  and  the  Queen,  referring  to  the  circum- 
stance some  time  afterwards,  told  her  courtiers  how  much 
the  prelate  was  mistaken  in  supposing  her  to  be  as  much 
decayed  as  perhaps  he  might  feel  himself  to  be.  As  for 
her,  she  thanked  God,  neither  her  stomach  nor  her 
strength — her  voice  for  singing,  or  her  art  of  fingering  in- 
struments, were  any  whit  decayed.  And  to  prove  the 
goodness  of  her  eyes,  she  produced  a  little  jewel,  with 
an  inscription  in  very  small  letters,  which  she  offered  to 
Lord  Worcester  and  Sir  James  Crofts  to  read  ;  and  as 
they  had  too  much  tact  to  be  sharp-sighted  on  the  occa- 
sion, she  read  it  herself  with  apparent  ease,  and  laughed 
at  the  error  of  the  good  bishop. 

The  faults  of  Elizabeth,  though  arising  chiefly  from 
age  and  ill-temper,  were  noticed  and  resented  by  her 
subjects,  who  began  openly  to  show  themselves  weary  oi 
a  female  reign,  forgetting  how  glorious  it  had  been,  and 
to  desire  to  have  a  king  to  rule  over  them.  With  this 
general  feeling,  all  eyes,  even  those  of  Elizabeth's  most 
confidential  statesman  and  counsellor  Sir  Robert  Cecil, 
afterwards  Earl  of  Salisbury,  were  turned  to  the  King  of 
Scotland  as  next  heir  to  the  crown.  He  was  a  Protestant 
prince,  which  assured  him  the  favour  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  of  the  numerous  and  strong  adherents  to 
the  Protestant  religion.  As  such,  Cecil  entered  into  a 
secret  correspondence  with  him,  in  which  he  pointed  out 
the  line  of  conduct  proper  on  James's  part  to  secure  Irs 
interest  in  England.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English 
Catholics,  on  whom  Queen  Elizabeth's  government  had 


22          INTRIGUES    OF    CECIL    WITH    JAMES    VI. 

imposed  many  severe  penal  laws,  were  equally  friendly  to 
the  succession  of  King  James,  since  from  that  prince, 
whose  mother  had  been  a  strict  Catholic,  they  might  hope 
for  some  favour,  or,  at  the  least,  some  release  from  the 
various  hardships  which  the  laws  of  England  imposed  on 
them.  The  Earl  of  Northumberland  conducted  a  cor- 
respondence with  James  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics,  in 
which  he  held  high  language,  and  offered  to  assert  the 
Scottish  King's  right  of  succession  by  force  of  arms. 

These  intrigues  were  kept  by  James  as  secret  as  was  in 
his  power.  If  Elizabeth  had  discovered  either  the  one 
or  the  other,  neither  the  services  of  Cecil  nor  the  high 
birth  and  power  of  the  great  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
could  have  saved  them  from  experiencing  the  extremity 
of  her  indignation.  Cecil,  in  particular,  was  at  one  time 
on  the  point  of  rum.  A  post  from  Scotland  delivered 
into  his  hands  a  private  packet  from  the  Scottish  king, 
when  the  secretary  was  in  attendance  on  Elizabeth. 
"  Open  your  despatches,"  said  Elizabeth,  ''  and  let  us 
hear  the  news  from  Scotland."  A  man  of  less  presence 
of  mind  would  have  been  ruined  ;  for  if  the  Queen  had 
seen  the  least  hesitation  in  her  minister's  manner,  her  sus- 
picions would  have  been  instantly  awakened,  and  detec- 
tion must  have  followed.  But  Cecil  recollected  the 
Queen's  sensitive  aversion  to  any  disagreeable  smell, 
which  was  strengthened  by  the  belief  of  the  time,  that 
infectious  diseases  and  subtle  poisons  could  be  commu- 
nicated by  means  of  scent  alone.  The  artful  secretary 
availed  himself  of  this,  and  while  he  seemed  to  be  cut- 
ting the  strings  which  held  the  packet,  he  observed  it  had 
a  singular  and  unpleasant  odour  ;  on  which  Elizabeth 
desired  it  might  be  taken  from  her  presence,  and  opened 
elsewhere  with  due  precaution.  Thus  Cecil  got  an  op- 
portunity to  withdraw  from  the  packet  whatever  could 
have  betrayed  his  correspondence  with  King  James. 
Cecil's  policy  and  inclinations  were  very  generally  follow- 
ed in  the  English  court ;  indeed,  there  appeared  no  heir 
to  the  crown,  male  or  female,  whose  right  could  be  placed 
in  competition  with  that  of  James. 


-A  -:-  CAL. 

CHARACTER   OF   JAMES.  23 

It  may  oe  added  to  this  general  inclination  n  James's 
favour,  that  the  defects  of  his  character  were  of  a  kind 
which  did  not  attract  much  attention  while  he  occupied 
the  throne  of  Scotland.  The  delicacy  of  his  situation 
was  then  so  great,  and  he  was  exposed  to  so  many  dan- 
gers from  the  dislike  of  the  clergy,  the  feuds  of  the  no- 
bles, and  the  tumultuous  disposition  of  the  common  peo- 
ple, that  he  dared  not  indulge  in  any  of  those  childish 
freaks  of  which  he  was  found  capable  when  his  motions 
were  more  completely  at  his  own  disposal.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  was  compelled  to  seek  out  the  sagest  counsellors, 
to  listen  to  the  wisest  advice,  and  to  put  a  restraint  on  his 
own  natural  disposition  for  encouraging  idle  favourites, 
parasites,  and  flatterers,  as  well  as  to  suppress  his  inward 
desire  to  extend  the  limits  of  his  authority  farther  than 
the  constitution  of  the  country  permitted.  At  this  period 
he  governed  by  the  advice  of  such  ministers  as  the  Chan- 
cellor Maitland,  and  afterwards  of  Home,  Earl  of  Dun- 
bar,  men  of  thought  and  action,  of  whose  steady  meas- 
ures and  prudent  laws  the  king  naturally  obtained  the 
credit.  Neither  was  James  himself  deficient  in  a  certain 
degree  of  sagacity.  He  possessed  all  that  could  be  de- 
rived from  learning  alloyed  by  pedantry,  and  from  a  nat- 
ural shrewdness  of  wit,  which  enabled  him  to  play  the 
part  of  a  man  of  sense,  when  either  acting  under  the 
Influence  of  constraint  and  fear,  or  where  no  temptation 
occurred  to  induce  him  to  be  guilty  of  some  folly.  It 
was  by  these  specious  accomplishments  that  he  acquired 
in  his  youth  the  character  of  an  able  and  wise  monarch, 
although  when  he  was  afterwards  brought  on  a  more  con- 
spicuDus  stage,  and  his  character  better  understood,  he 
was  found  entitled  to  no  better  epithet  than  that  conferred 
on  him  by  an  able  French  politician,  who  called  him, 
"  the  wisest  fool  in  Christendom." 

Such,  however,  as  King  James  was,  England  now  re- 
ceived him  with  more  universal  acclamation  than  had  at- 
tended any  of  her  princes  on  their  ascent  to  the  throne. 
Multitudes  of  every  description,  hastened  to  accompany 
him  on  his  journey  through  England  to  the  capital  city. 


24  CHARACTER    OF   JAMES 

The  wealthy  placed  their  gold  at  his  disposal,  the  power 
till  opened  their  halls  lor  the  most  magnificent  entertain, 
ments,  the  clergy  hailed  him  as  the  head  of  (he  Church 
and  the  poor,  who  had  nothing  to  offer  but  their  lives, 
seemed  ready  to  devote  them  to  his  service.  Some  oi 
the  Scottish  retinue  who  were  acquainted  with  James's 
character,  saw  and  feared  the  unfavourable  effect  which 
such  a  change  of  circumstances  was  likely  to  work  on 
him.  "  A  plague  of  these  people  !"  said  one  of  his 
oldest  domestics ;  "  they  will  spoil  a  good  king  !" 

Another  Scot  made  an  equally  shrewd  answer  to  an 
Englishman,  who  desired  to  know  from  him  the  king's 
real  character.  "  Did  you  ever  see  a  jackanapes  ?" 
said  the  Scotsman,  meaning  a  tame  monkey  ;  "  if  you 
have,  you  must  be  aware  that  if  you  hold  the  creature 
in  your  hands  you  can  make  him  bite  me,  and  if  I  hold 
him  in  my  hands,  1  can  make  him  bite  you." 

Both  these  sayings  were  shown  to  be  true  in  course  of 
time.  (  King  James,  brought  from  poverty  to  wealth,  be- 
came thoughtless  and  prodigal,  indolent,  and  addicted  to 
idle  pleasures.  From  hearing  the  smooth  flatteries  of 
the  clergy  of  England,  who  recognised  him  as  head  of 
the  Church,  instead  of  the  rude  attacks  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian ministers  of  Scotland,  who  had  hardly  admitted  his 
claim  to  be  one  of  its  inferior  members,  he  entertained 
new  and  more  lofty  pretensions  to  divine  right.  Finally, 
brought  from  a  country  where  his  personal  liberty  and 
the  freedom  of  his  government  were  frequently  placed 
under  restraint,  and  his  life  sometimes  in  danger,  he  was 
overjoyed  to  find  himself  in  a  condition  where  his  own 
will  was  not  only  unfettered,  as  far  as  he  himself  was 
concerned,  but  appeared  to  be  the  model  to  which  all 
loyal  subjects  were  desirous  to  accommodate  theirs  ; 
and  he  seemed  readily  enough  disposed  to  stretch  to  its 
utmost  limits  the  power  thus  presented  to  him.  Thus, 
from  being  a  just  and  equitable  monarch,  he  was  inspired 
with  a  love  of  arbitrary  power  ;  and  from  attending,  as 
had  been  his  custom,  to  state  business,  he  now  minded 
little  save  hunting  and  festivals.) 


CHARACTER    OF    JAMKS.  25 

In  this  manner  James,  though  possessing  a  large  nock 
of  pedantic  wisdom,  came  to  place  himself  under  the 
management  of  a  succession  of  unworthy  favourites,  and 
although  good-natured,  and  naturally  a  lover  of  justice, 
was  often  hurried  into  actions  and  measures,  which,  if 
they  could  not  be  termed  absolutely  tyrannical,  were 
nevertheless  illegal  and  unjust.  It  is,  however,  of  his 
Scottish  government  that  we  are  now  to  treat,  and  there- 
fore I  am  to  explain  to  you,  as  well  as  I  can,  the  conse- 
quences of  the  union  with  England  to  the  people  and 
country  of  Scotland. 

If  the  English  nation  were  delighted  to  receive  King 
James  as  their  sovereign,  the  Scottish  people  were  no 
les?  enchanted  by  the  prospect  of  their  monarch's  ascent 
to  this  wealthy  and  preeminent  situation.  They  consid- 
ered the  promotion  of  their  countryman  and  prince  as  an 
omen  of  good  fortune  to  their  nation  ;  each  individual 
Scotsman  expected  to  secure  some  part  of  the  good 
things  with  which  England  was  supposed  to  abound,  and 
multitudes  hurried  to  court,  to  put  themselves  in  the  way 
of  sharing  them. 

/James  was  shocked  at  the  greediness  and  importunity 
01  his  hungry  countrymen,  and  scandalized  besides  at 
the  poor  and  miserable  appearance  which  many  of  them 
made  among  the  rich  Englishmen,  and  which  brought 
discredit  upon  the  country  to  which  he  himself  as  well 
as  they  belonged.  He  sent  instructions  to  the  Scottish 
Privy  Council  to  prevent  such  intruders  from  leaving 
their  country,  complaining  of  their  manners  and  appear- 
ance, as  calculated  to  bring  disgrace  upon  all  the  natives 
ol  Scotland)  A  proclamation  was  accordingly  issued  at 
Edinburgh,  setting  forth  that  great  numbers  of  men  and 
women  of  base  sort  and  condition,  and  without  any  cer- 
tain trade,  calling,  or  dependence,  repaired  from  Scot- 
land to  court,  which  was  almost  filled  with  them,  to  the 
great  annoyance  of  his  Majesty,  and  to  the  heavy  dis- 
grace of  the  Scottish  nation  ;  for  these  suitors  being,  in 
the  judgment  of  all  who  saw  them,  but  idle  rascals,  and 
2  VOL.  i.  2d.  SER. 


•J"  KKSOItT    OF    SCOTSMKX    TO 

poor  miseraole  bodies,  their  importunity  and  numbers 
raised  an  opinion  that  there  were  no  persons  of  good 
rank,  comeliness,  or  credit  in  the  country,  whi'-h  seni 
forth  such  a  flight  of  locusts.  Further,  it  was  complain- 
ed that  these  unseemly  supplicants  usually  alleged  thai 
the  cause  of  their  repairing  to  court,  was  to  desire  pay- 
ment of  old  debts  due  by  the  King,  "  which  of  ail  kinds 
of  importunity,"  says  the  proclamation,  with  great  sim- 
plicity, "  is  the  most  unpleasing  to  his  Majesty."  There- 
fore, general  proclamation  was  directed  to  be  made  at  all 
the  market  crosses  in  Scotland,  that  no  Scottish  person 
should  be  permitted  to  travel  to  England  without  leave  of 
the  Privy  Council ;  and  that  vessels  transporting  individ- 
uals who  had  not  obtained  due  license,  should  be  liable 
t«f  confiscation. 

f  But  although  the  King  did  all  that  was  in  his  power  to 
prevent  these  uncouth  suitors  from  repairing  to  his  court, 
yet  there  were  many  other  natives  of  Scotland  of  a  higher 
description,  the  sons  of  men  of  rank  and  quality,  who, 
by  birth  and  condition,  had  the  right  of  attending  his 
court,  and  approaching  his  presence,  whom  he  could  not 
prohibit  from  doing  so,  without  positively  disowning  all 
former  affections,  national  feeling,  and  sympathy  or  grat- 
itude for  past  services.  )  The  benefits  which  he  conferred 
on  these  were  ill  construed  by  the  English,  who  seem 
to  have  accounted  everything  as  taken  from  themselves 
which  was  bestowed  on  a  Scotsman.  The  King,  though 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  acted  with  any  unjust  purpose, 
was  hardly  judged,  both  by  his  own  countrymen  and  the 
English.  The  Scots,  who  had  been  his  friends  in  his 
inferior  situation,  and,  as  it  might  be  called,  his  adversi- 
ty, naturally  expected  a  share  of  his  bounty,  when  he 
was  advanced  to  such  high  prosperity  ;  while  the  Eng- 
lish, with  a  jealousy  for  which  much  allowance  is  to  be 
made,  regarded  these  northern  suitors  with  an  evil  eye. 
In  short,  the  Scottish  courtiers  thought  that  their  claims 
o I  ancient  services,  of  allegiance  tried  under  difficult 
circumstances,  of  favour  due  to  countrymen,  and  perhaps 
even  to  kindred,  which  no  people  carry  so  far  entitled 


THE    COURT    AT    LONDON.  27 

(hem  to  all  the  advantages  which  the  King  night  have 
to  bestow  ;  while  the  English,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
sidered everything  given  to  the  Scots  as  conferred  at 
their  expense,  and  used  many  rhymes  and  satirical  ex- 
pressions to  that  purpose,  such  as  occur  in  the  old  song : — 

Bonny  Scot,  all  witness  can, 
England  has  made  thee  a  gentleman. 

Thy  blue  bonnet,  when  thou  came  hither, 
Would  scarcely  keep  out  the  wind  or  weather  : 
But  now  it  is  turned  to  a  hat  and  a  feather— 
The  bonnet  is  blown  the  devil  knows  whither. 

The  sword  at  thy  haunch  was  a  huge  black  blade, 
With  a  great  basket-hilt,  of  iron  made  ; 
But  now  a  long  rapier  doth  hang  by  his  side, 
And  huflingly  doth  this  bonny  Scot  ride. 

Another  rhyme,  to  the  same  purpose,  described  a  Scot- 
tish courtier  thus  : — 

In  Scotland  he  was  born  and  bred, 
And,  though  a  beggar,  must  be  fed. 

It  is  said,  that  when  the  Scots  complained  to  the  king  ol 
this  last  aspersion,  James  replied,  "  Hold  your  peace, 
for  I  will  soon  make  the  English  as  poor  as  yourselves, 
and  so  end  that  controversy."  But  as  it  was  not  in  the 
power  of  wit  to  appease  the  feud  betwixt  the  nobility  and 
gentry  of  two  proud  nations,  so  lately  enemies,  all  the 
efforts  of  the  King  were  unequal  to  prevent  bloody  and 
desperate  quarrels  between  his  countrymen  and  his  new 
subjects,  to  the  great  disquiet  of  the  court,  and  the  dis- 
tress of  the  good-natured  monarch,  who,  averse  to  war 
•n  all  its  shapes,  and  even  to  the  sight  of  a  drawn  sword, 
suffeied  grievously  on  such  occasions. 

There  was  one  of  those  incidents  which  assumed  a 
character  so  formidable,  that  it  threatened  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  the  Scots  at  the  court  and  in  the  capital, 
and,  in  consequence,  a  breach  between  the  kingdoms  so 
lately  and  happily  allied.  At  a  public  horse-race  at 
Croydon,  Philip  Herbert,  an  Englishman  of  high  birth 


28  <il?AKKKLS    KKTWKKN    THIS     SCOI'SMK.V 

(hough,  as  it  fortunately  chanced,  of  no  degree  of  cor- 
responding spirit,  received,  in  a  quarrel,  a  blow  in  the 
face  by  a  switch  or  a  horse-whip,  from  one  Ramsay,  a 
Scottish  gentleman  in  attendance  on  the  court  The 
rashness  and  violence  of  Ramsay  was  construed  into  a 
national  point  of  quarrel  by  the  English  present,  who 
proposed  revenging  themselves  on  the  spot  by  a  general 
attack  upon  all  the  Scots  on  the  race-ground.  One  gen- 
tleman, named  Pinchbeck,  although  ill  fitted  for  such  a 
strife,  for  he  had  but  the  use  of  two  fingers  on  his  right 
hand,  rode  furiously  through  the  multitude,  witli  his  dag- 
ger ready  drawn,  exhorting  all  the  EngJsh  to  imitate  him 
in  an  immediate  attack  on  the  Scots,  exclaiming,  "  Let 
us  breakfast  with  those  that  are  here,  and  dine  with  the 
rest  in  London."  But  as  Herbeit  did  not  return  the 
blow,  no  scuffle  or  assault  actually  took  place  ;  other- 
wise, it  is  probable,  a  dreadful  seem*  must  have  ensued. 
James,  with  whom  Herbert  was  a  particular  favourite, 
rewarded  his  moderation  or  timidity  by  raising  him  to  the 
rank  of  Knight,  Baron,  Viscount,  and  Earl  of  Montgom- 
ery, all  in  one  day.  Ramsay  was  banished  the  court  for 
a  season  ;  and  thus  the  immediate  affront  was  in  some 
degree  alleviated.  But  the  new  Earl  of  Montgomery 
remained,  in  the  opinion  of  his  countrymen,  a  dishonour- 
ed man  ;  and  it  is  said  his  mother,  the  sister  of  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  wept  and  tore  her  hair  when  she  heard  of  his 
having  endured  with  patience  the  insult  offered  by  Ram- 
say. This  is  the  lady  whom,  in  a  beautiful  epitaph,  Ben 
Jonson  has  described  as 

Sidney's  sister,  Pembroke's  mother ; 
Death,  erethou  hast  slain  another 
Wise,  and  good,  and  learn'd  as  she, 
Time  shall  throw  a  dart  at  thee. 

Yet  the  patience  of  Herbert  under  the  insult  was  the 
fortunate  prevention  of  a  great  national  misfortune  for 
which,  if  his  after  conduct  had  not  given  tokens  of  an 
abject  spirit,  he  might  1  ave  been  praised  as  a  patriot,  who 


AT    C017RT    AND    THE    ENGLISH.  29 

had  preferred  the  good  of  his  country  to  the  gratification 
of  his  own  immediate  resentment. 

Another  offence  given  by  the  haughty  and  irascible 
temper  of  a  Scotsman,  was  also  likely  to  have  produced 
disastrous  consequences.  The  Inns  of  Court  are  the 
places  of  resort  and  study  appointed  for  those  young  men 
who  are  destined  to  the  profession  of  the  law  in  England, 
and  they  are  filled  with  students,  men  often  of  high  fam- 
ily and  accomplishments,  and  who,  living  together  in  the 
sort  of  colleges  set  apart  for  their  residence,  have  always 
kept  up  the  ideas  of  privilege  and  distinction,  to  which 
their  destination  to  a  highly  honourable  profession,  as  well 
as  their  own  birth  and  condition,  entitles  them.  One  of 
these  gentlemen,  by  name  Edward  Hawley,  appeared  at 
court  on  a  public  occasion,  and,  probably,  intruded  fur- 
ther than  his  rank  authorized  ;  so  that  Maxwell,  a  Scots- 
man, much  favoured  by  James,  and  an  usher  of  his 
chamber,  not  only  thrust  him  back,  but  actually  pulled 
him  out  of  the  presence  chamber  by  a  black  riband 
which,  like  other  gallants  of  the  time,  Hawley  wore  at 
the  ear.  Hawley,  who  was  a  man  of  spirit,  instantly 
challenged  Maxwell  to  fight ;  and  his  second,  who  car- 
ried the  challenge,  informed  him,  that  if  he  declined 
such  meeting,  Hawley  would  assault  him  wherever  they 
should  meet,  and  either  kill  him  or  be  killed  on  the  spot. 
James,  by  his  royal  interference,  was  able  to  solder  up 
this  quarrel  also.  He  compelled  Maxwell  to  make  an 
apology  to  Hawley  ;  and,  for  the  more  full  accommoda- 
tion of  the  dispute,  accepted  of  a  splendid  masque  and 
entertainment  offered  on  the  occasion  by  the  students  of 
Gray's  Inn  Lane,  the  society  to  which  the  injured  gen- 
tleman belonged. 

We  may  here  remark  a  great  change  in  the  manners 
of  the  gallants  of  the  time,  which  had  taken  place  in  the 
progress  of  civilization,  to  which  I  formerly  alluded. 
The  ancient  practice  of  trial  by  combat,  which  made  a 
principal  part  of  the  feudal  law,  and  which  was  resorteu 
to  in  so  many  cases,  was  now  fallen  into  disuse.  The 


30  DUELLING. 

progress  of  reason,  and  the  principles  of  justice,  concur- 
red to  prove  that  a  combat  in  the  lists  might  indeed  show 
which  of  two  knights  was  the  best  rider  and  the  stoutest 
swordsman,  but  that  such  an  encounter  could  afford  no 
evidence  which  of  the  two  was  innocent  or  guilty  ;  since 
it  can  only  be  believed  in  a  very  ignorant  age  that  Prov- 
idence is  to  work  a  miracle  in  case  of  every  chance 
combat,  and  award  success  to  the  party  whose  virtue  best 
deserves  it.  The  trial  by  combat,  therefore,  though,  it 
was  not  actually  removed  from  the  statute-book,  was  in 
fact  only  once  appealed  to  after  the  accession  of  James, 
and  even  then  the  combat,  as  a  mode  of  trial  unsuited 
to  enlightened  times,  did  not  take  place. 

For  the  same  reason  the  other  sovereigns  of  Europe 
discountenanced  these  challenges  and  combats,  either  for 
pure  honour  or  in  revenge  of  some  injury,  which  it  used 
to  be  their  custom  to  encourage,  and  to  sanction  with 
their  own  presence.  These  rencounters  were  generally 
accounted  by  all  sensible  persons  an  inexcusable  waste  of 
gallant  men's  lives  for  matters  of  mere  punctilio,  and 
were  strictly  forbidden,  under  the  highest  penalties,  by 
the  Kings  both  of  England  and  France,  and,  generally 
speaking,  through  the  civilized  world.  But  the  royal 
command  could  not  change  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom 
it  was  addressed,  nor  could  the  penalties  annexed  to  the 
breach  of  the  law  intimidate  men,  whom  a  sense  of  hon- 
our, though  a  false  one,  had  already  induced  to  hold  life 
cheap.  Men  fought  as  many,  perhaps  even  more,  single 
combats  than  formerly  ;  and  although  they  took  place 
without  the  publicity  and  formal  show  of  lists,  armour 
horses,  and  the  attendance  of  heralds  and  judges  of  the 
field,  yet  they  were  not  less  bloody  than  those  which  had 
been  formerly  fought  with  the  observance  of  every  point 
of  chivalry.  According  to  the  more  modern  practice, 
combatants  met  in  some  solitary  place,  alone,  or  each 
accompanied  by  a  friend  called  a  second,  who  were  sup- 
posed to  see  fair  play.  The  combat  was  generally  fought 
ivith  the  rapier  or  small  sword,  a  peculiarly  deadly  wea- 
pon, and  the  combatants,  to  show  they  wore  no  defensive 


DUEL    BETWEEN    STEWART    AJVD    WHARTOlf.       31 

armour  under  their  clothes,  threw  off  their  coats  and 
waistcoats,  and  fought  in  their  shirts.  The  duty  of  the 
seconds,  properly  interpreted,  was  only  to  see  fair  play  ; 
but  as  these  hot-spirited  young  men  felt  it  difficult  to  re- 
main cool  and  inactive  when  they  saw  their  friends  en- 
gaged, it  v/as  very  common  for  them,  though  without  even 
the  shadow  of  a  quarrel,  to  fight  also  ;  and,  in  that  case, 
whoever  first  despatched  his  antagonist,  or  rendered  him 
incapable  of  further  resistance,  came  without  hesitation 
to  the  assistance  of  his  comrade,  and  thus  the  decisive 
superiority  was  brought  on  by  odds  of  numbers,  which 
contradicts  all  our  common  ideas  of  honour  or  of  gal- 
lantry. 

Such  were  the  rules  of  the  duel,  as  these  single  com- 
bats were  called.  The  fashion  came  from  France  to 
England,  and  was  adopted  by  the  Scots  and  English  as 
the  readiest  way  of  settling  their  national  quarrels,  which 
became  very  numerous. 

One  of  the  most  noted  of  these  was  the  bloody  and 
fatal  conflict  between  Sir  James  Stewart,  son  of  the  first 
Lord  Blantyre,  a  Scottish  Knight  of  the  Bath,  and  Sir 
George  Wharton,  an  Englishman,  eldest  son  of  Lord 
Wharton,  a  Knight  of  the  same  order.  These  gentle- 
men were  friends  ;  and,  if  family  report  speaks  truth, 
Sir  James  Stewart  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
young  men  of  his  time.  A  trifling  dispute  at  play  led  to 
uncivil  expressions  on  the  part  of  Wharton,  to  which 
Stewart  answered  by  a  blow.  A  defiance  was  exchang- 
ed on  the  spot,  and  they  resolved  to  fight  next  day  at  an 
appointed  place  near  Waltham.  This  fatal  appointment 
made,  they  carried  their  resentment  with  a  show  of 
friendship,  and  drank  some  wine  together  ;  after  finishing 
which,  Wharton  observed  to  his  opponent,  "  Our  next 
meeting  will  not  part  so  easily."  The  fatal  rencounter 
took  place  ;  both  gentlemen  fought  with  the  most  deter- 
mined courage,  and  both  fell  with  many  wounds,  and 
died  on  the  field  of  battle. 

Sometimes  the  rage  and  passion  of  the  gallants  of  the 
day  did  not  take  the  fairest,  jut  the  shortest  road  to  re- 


32     ATTKMri    TO    ASSASSINATE    LORD    HERBERT. 

venge  ;  and  the  courtiers  of  James  I. ,  men  of  honoura- 
ble birth  and  title,  were,  in  some  instances,  addicted  to 
attack  an  enemy  by  surprise,  without  regard  to  the  pre- 
vious appointment  of  a  place  of  meeting,  or  any  regula- 
tion as  to  the  number  of  the  combatants.  Nay,  it  seems 
as  if,  on  occasions  of  special  provocation,  the  English  did 
not  disdain  to  use  the  swords  of  hired  assassins  in  aid  of 
their  revenge,  and  all  the  punctilios  of  equality  of  arms 
or  numbers  were  set  aside  as  idle  ceremonies. 

Sir  Join  Ayres,  a  man  of  rank  and  fortune,  entertain- 
ed jealousy  of  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury,  celebrated 
as  a  soldier  and  philosopher,  from  having  discovered  that 
his  wife,  Lady  Ayres,  wore  around  her  neck  the  picture 
of  that  high-spirited  and  accomplished  nobleman.  In- 
censed by  the  suspicions  thus  excited,  Sir  John  watched 
Lord  Herbert,  and,  meeting  him  on  his  return  from  court, 
attended  by  only  two  servants,  he  attacked  him  furiously, 
backed  by  four  of  his  followers  with  drawn  weapons,  and 
attended  by  many  others,  who,  though  they  did  not  di- 
rectly unsheath  their  swords,  yet  served  to  lend  counte- 
nance to  the  assault.  Lord  Herbert  was  thrown  down 
under  his  horse  ;  his  sword,  with  which  he  endeavoured 
to  defend  himself,  was  broken  in  his  hand  ;  and  the 
weight  of  the  horse  prevented  him  from  rising.  One  of 
his  lacqueys  ran  away  on  seeing  his  master  attacked  by 
such  odds  ;  the  other  stood  by  him,  and  released  his  foot, 
which  was  entangled  in  the  stirrup.  At  this  moment  Sir 
John  Ayres  was  standing  over  him,  and  in  the  act  of  at- 
tempting to  plunge  his  sword  into  his  body  ;  but  Lord 
Herbert,  catching  him  by  the  legs,  brought  him  also  to  the 
ground,  and  although  the  young  Lord  had  but  a  fragment 
of  his  sword  remaining,  he  struck  his  unmanly  antagonist 
with  such  force  on  the  stomach  as  deprived  him  of  the 
power  to  prosecute  his  bloody  purpose  ;  and  some  of 
Lord  Herbert's  friends  coming  up,  the  assassin  thought 
it  prudent  to  withdraw,  vomiting  blood  in  consequence  of 
the  blow  he  had  received. 

This  scuffle  lasted  for  some  time  in  the  streets  of  Lou- 
rion,  wit  bout  any  person  feeling  himself  called  upon  to 


Ml   Kill. I!     OF    TUKNKK.  33 

interfere  in  behalf  of  the  weaker  parly  ;  and  Sir  John 
Ayres  seems  to  have  entertained  no  shame  for  the  enter- 
prise, but  only  regret  that  it  had  not  succeeded.  Lord 
Herbert  sent  him  a  challenge  as  soon  as  his  wounds  weie 
in  the  way  of  being  cured  ;  and  the  gentleman  who  bore 
it,  placed  the  letter  on  the  point  of  his  sword,  and  in  that 
manner  delivered  it  publicly  to  the  person  whom  he  ad- 
dressed. Sir  John  Ayres  replied,  that  the  injury  he  had 
received  from  Lord  Herbert  was  of  such  a  nature,  that 
he  would  not  consent  to  any  terms  of  fair  play,  but  would 
shoot  him  from  a  window  with  a  musket  if  he  could  find 
an  opportunity.  Lord  Herbert  protests,  in  his  Memoirs, 
that  there  was  no  cause  given  on  his  part  for  the  jealousy 
which  drove  Sir  John  Ayres  to  such  desperate  measures 
of  revenge. 

A  still  more  noted  case  of  cruel  vengeance,  and  which 
served  to  embitter  the  general  hatred  against  the  Scots, 
was  a  crime  committed  by  Lord  Sanquhar,  a  nobleman 
of  that  country,  the  representative  of  the  ancient  family 
of  Creichton.  This  young  lord,  in  fencing  with  a  man 
called  Turner,  a  teacher  of  the  science  of  defence,  had 
•he  misfortune  to  be  deprived  of  an  eye  by  the  accident- 
al thrust  of  a  foil.  The  mishap  was,  doubtless,  both 
distressing  and  provoking  ;  but  there  was  no  room  to 
olame  Turner,  by  'whom  no  injury  had  been  intended, 
and  who  greatly  regretted  the  accident.  One  or  two 
years  after  this,  Lord  Sanquhar  being  at  the  court  ot 
France,  Henry  IV.  then  king,  asked  him  how  he  had  lost 
his  eye.  Lord  Sanquhar,  not  wishing  to  dwell  on  the 
subject,  answered  in  general  terms,  that  it  was  by  the 
thrust  of  a  sword.  "  Does  the  man  who  did  the  injury 
still  live  ?"  asked  the  king  ;  and  the  unhappy  question 
impressed  it  indelibly  upon  the  heart  of  the  infatuated 
Lord  Sanquhar,  that  his  honour  required  the  death  of  the 
poor  fencing-master.  Accordingly,  he  despatched  his 
page  and  another  of  his  followers',  who  pistolled  Turner 
in  his  own  school.  The  murderers  were  taken,  and  ac- 
knowledged they  had  boon  employed  to  do  the  deed  by 
their  lord,  whose  commands,  they  said,  they  had  been 
882 


34  STATUTK    OF    STABBING. 

bred  up  to  hold  as  indisputable  warrants  for  the  execution 
of  whatever  he  might  enjoin.  All  the  culprits  being 
brought  to  trial  and  condemned,  much  interest  was  made 
lor  Lord  Sanquhar,  who  was  a  young  man,  it  is  said,  of 
eminent  parts.  But  to  have  pardoned  him  would  have 
argued  too  gross  a  partiality  in  James  towards  his  coun- 
trymen and  original  subjects.  He  was  hanged,  there- 
fore, along  with  his  two  associates  ;  which  Lord  Bacon 
termed  the  most  exemplary  piece  of  justice  in  any  king's 
reign. 

To  sum  up  the  account  of  these  acts  of  violence, 
they  gave  occasion  to  a  severe  iaw,  called  the  statute  of 
stabbing.  Hitherto,  in  the  mild  spirit  of  English  juris- 
prudence, the  crime  of  a  person  slaying  another  without 
premeditation  only  amounted  to  the  lesser  denomination 
of  murder,  which  the  law  calls  manslaughter,  and  which 
had  been  only  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment. 
But,  to  check  the  use  of  short  swords  and  poniards, 
weapons  easily  concealed,  and  capable  of  being  sudden- 
ly produced,  it  was  provided  that  if  any  one,  though  with- 
out forethought  or  premeditation,  with  sword  or  dagger, 
attacked  and  wounded  another  whose  weapon  was  no* 
drawn,  of  which  wound  the  party  should  die  within  six 
months  after  receiving  it,  the  crime  should  not  be  account- 
ed homicide,  but  rise  into  the  higher  class  of  nuirdei 
suid  be  as  such  punished  with  <L*ath  accordingly. 


8TATK  OF  ENGLAND.  .35 


CHAPTER    III. 

Attempt  of  James  to  reduce  the  Institutions  of  Scot- 
land to  a  state  of  Uniformity  with  those  of  England 
— Commissioners  appointed  to  effect  this — the  Pro- 
ject fails — Distinctions  between  the  Forms  of 
Church  Government  in  the  two  Countries — Intro- 
duction of  Episcopacy  into  the  Scottish  Church — 
Five  Articles  of  Perth — Dissatisfaction  of  the 
People  with  these  Innovations. 

While  the  quarrels  of  the  English  and  Scottish  nobility 
disturbed  the  comfort  of  James  the  First's  reign,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  monarch  applied  himself  with  some 
diligence  to  cement  as  much  as  possible  the  union  of  the 
two  kingdoms,  and  to  impart  to  each  such  advantages  as 
they  might  be  found  capable  of  borrowing  from  the  other. 
The  love  of  power,  natural  to  him  as  a  sovereign,  com- 
bined with  a  sincere  wish  for  what  would  be  most  advan- 
tageous to  both  countries — for  James,  when  not  carried 
off  by  his  love  of  idle  pleasures,  and  the  influence  of 
unworthy  favourites,  possessed  the  power  of  seeing,  and 
the  disposition  to  advance,  the  interests  of  his  subjects — 
alike  induced  him  to  accelerate,  by  every  means,  the 
uniting  the  two  separate  portions  of  Britain  into  one  solid 
and  inseparable  state,  for  which  nature  designed  the  in- 
habitants of  the  same  island.  He  was  not  negligent  in 
adopting  measures  to  attain  so  desirable  an  object,  though 
circumstances  deferred  the  accomplishment  of  his  wishes 
till  the  lapse  of  a  century.  To  explain  the  nature  of  his 
attempt,  and  ihe  causes  of  its  failure,  we  must  consider 
the  respective  condition  of  England  and  Scotland  as  re- 
garded their  political  institutions. 

The  long  and  bloody  wars  between  the  houses  of  York 
and  Lancaster,  who,  for  more  than  thirty  years,  contended 


36  STATE    OK    KM;  I.  A  NO 

ror  the  throne  of  England,  had,  by  slaughter  in  numerous 
battles,  by  repeated  proscriptions,  public  executions,  mm 
forfeitures,  reduced  to  a  comparatively  inconsideiable 
number,  and  to  a  much  greater  state  of  disab  lity  and 
weakness,  the  nobility  and  great  gentry  of  the  kingdom, 
by  whom  the  crown  had  been  alternately  bestowed  on  one 
or  other  of  the  contending  parties.  Henry  the  Seventh, 
a  wise  and  subtle  prince,  had,  by  his  success  in  the  deci- 
sive battle  of  Bosworth,  attained  a  secure  seat  upon  the 
English  throne.  He  availed  himself  of  the  weak  state 
of  the  peers  and  barons,  to  undermine  and  destroy  the 
influence  which  the  feudal  system  had  formerly  given 
them  over  their  vassals  ;  and  they  submitted  to  this  dim- 
inution of  their  authority,  as  men  who  felt  that  the  stormy 
independence  possessed  by  their  ancestors  had  cost  them 
very  dear,  and  that  it  was  better  to  live  at  ease  under 
the  king,  as  a  common  head  of  the  state,  than  to  possess 
the  ruinous  power  of  petty  sovereigns,  each  on  his  own 
estate,  making  war  upon,  and  ruining  others,  and  incur- 
ring destruction  themselves.  They  therefore  relinquish- 
ed, without  much  open  discontent,  most  of  their  oppres- 
sive rights  of  sovereignty  over  their  vassals,  and  were  sat- 
isfied to  be  honoured  and  respected  masters  of  their  own 
lands,  without  retaining  the  power  of  princes  over  those 
who  cultivated  them.  They  exacted  rents  from  their  ten- 
ants instead  of  service  in  battle,  and  attendance  in  peace, 
and  became  peaceful  and  wealthy,  instead  of  being  great 
and  turbulent. 

As  the  nobles  sunk  in  consideration,  the  citizens  of  the 
towns  and  sea-ports,  and  the  smaller  gentry  and  cultiva- 
tors of  the  soil,  increased  in  importance  as  well  as  in  pros- 
perity and  happiness.  These  commoners  felt,  indeed,  and 
sometimes  murmured  against,  the  ascendence  acquired  by 
the  king,  but  were  conscious  at  the  same  time,  that  it  was 
the  crown  which  had  relieved  them  from  the  far  more 
vexatious  and  frequent  exactions  of  their  late  feudal  lords; 
and  as  the  burden  fell  equally  on  all,  they  were  better 
contented  to  live  under  the  sway  of  one  king,  who  impos- 
ed the  national  burdens  on  the  people  at  large,  t'lan  under 


AT    THE    ACCESSION    OF    JAMES.  37 

that  of  a  number  of  proud  lords.  Henry  VII.  availed 
himself  of  these  favourable  dispositions,  to  raise  large 
taxes,  whi(  h  he  partly  hoarded  up  for  occasions  of  euser- 
gency,  and  partly  expended  on  levying  bands  of  soldiers, 
both  foreign  and  domestic,  by  whom  he  carried  on  such 
wars  as  he  engaged  in,  without  finding  any  necessity  to 
call  out  the  feudal  array  of  the  kingdom. 

Henry  VIII.  was  a  prince  of  a  very  different  temper, 
and  yet  his  reign  contributed  greatly  to  extend  and  con- 
firm the  power  of  the  crown.  He  expended,  indeed,  the 
treasures  of  his  father  ;  but  he  replenished  them,  in  a  great 
measure,  by  the  spoils  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
and  he  confirmed  the  usurpation  of  arbitrary  authority,  by 
the  vigour  with  which  he  wielded  it.  The  tyranny  which 
he  exercised  in  his  family  and  court,,  was  unfelt  by  the 
citizens  and  common  people,  with  whom  he  continued  to 
be  rather  popular  from  his  splendour,  than  dreaded  from 
his  violence.  His  power  wrested  from  them,  in  the  shape 
of  compulsory  loans  and  benevolences,  large  sums  of 
money  which  he  was  not  entitled  to  by  the  grant  of  par- 
liament ;  but  though  he  could  not  directly  compel  them 
to  pay  such  exactions,  yet  he  could  exert,  as  in  the  case 
of  Alderman  Read,  the  power  of  sending  the  refusing 
party  to  undergo  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  foreign 
service,  which  most  wealthy  citizens  thought  still  harder 
than  the  alternative  of  paying  a  sum  of  money. 

The  reign  of  the  English  Queen  Mary  was  short  and 
inglorious,  but  she  pursued  the  arbitrary  steps  of  her  fath- 
er, and  in  no  degree  relaxed  the  power  which  the  crown 
had  acquired  since  the  accession  of  Henry  VII.  That 
of  Elizabeth  went  considerably  to  increase  it.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  wise  measures  which  she  adopted  for  main- 
taining the  Protestant  religion,  and  making  the  power  ol 
England  respected  by  foreign  states,  flattered  the  vanity, 
and  conciliated  the  affection,  of  her  subjects.  The  wis^ 
dom  and  economy  with  which  she  distributed  the  treasures 
of  the  state,  added  to  the  general  disposition  of  her  sub- 
jects to  place  them  at  her  command ;  and  the  arbitrary 


38  STATE    OF    ENGLAND 

authority  which  her  grandfather  acquired  by  subtlety, 
which  her  father  maintained  by  violence,  and  which  he. 
sister  preserved  by  bigotry,  was  readily  conceded  to  Eliz- 
abeth by  the  love  and  esteem  of  her  people.  It  was, 
moreover,  to  be  considered,  that,  like  the  rest  of  the  Tu- 
dor family,  the  Queen  nourished  high  ideas  of  royal  pre- 
rogative ;  and  when  thwarted  in  her  wishes  by  any  oppo- 
sition, not  unfrequently  called  to  lively  recollection,  both 
by  expression  and  action,  whose  daughter  she  was. 

In  a  word,  the  almost  absolute  authority  of  the  House 
of  Tudor  may  be  understood  from  the  single  circumstance, 
that  although  religion  is  the  point  on  which  men  do,  and 
ought  to  think  their  individual  feelings  and  sentiments 
particularly  at  liberty,  yet,  at  the  arbitrary  will  of  the 
sovereign,  the  Church  of  England  was  disjoined  from  that 
of  Rome  by  Henry  the  Eighth,  was  restored  to  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  faith  by  Queen  Mary,  and  again  declared 
Protestant  by  Elizabeth  ;  and  on  each  occasion  the  change 
was  effected  without  any  commotion  or  resistance  beyond 
what  wa^soon  put  down  by  the  power  of  the  Crown. 

Thus,  on  succeeding  to  the  English  throne,  James  found 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  nobility  who  had  lost  both  the 
habit  and  power  of  resisting  the  will  of  the  sovereign,  and 
of  a  wealthy  body  of  commons,  who,  satisfied  with  being 
liberated  from  the  power  of  the  aristocracy,  were  little 
disposed  to  resist  the  exactions  of  the  crown} 

His  ancient  kingdom  of  Scotland  was  in  a.  directly  dif- 
ferent situation.  The  feudal  nobility  had  retained  their 
territorial  jurisdictions,  and  their  signiorial  privileges,  in 
as  full  extent  as  their  ancestors  had  possessed  them,  and 
therefore  had  the  power  at  once  and  the  inclination  to 
resist  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  sovereign,  a?  James  himself 
had  felt  on  more  occasions  than  one.  Thus,  though  the 
body  of  the  people  had  not  the  same  protection  from  just 
and  equal  hws,  as  was  the  happy  lot  of  the  inhabitants  of 
England,  and  were  less  wealthy,  yet  the  spirit  of  the  con- 
stitution possessed  all  the  freedom  which  was  inherent  in 
die  ancient  feudal  institutions,  and  it  was  impossible  for 
the  monarch  so  to  influence  the  Parlian./nt  of  the  coun 


\T    THE    ACCESSION    OF    JAMES.  39 

try,  as  to  accomplish  any  considerable  encroachment  on 
the  privileges  of  the  nation. 

It  was  therefore  obvious,  that  besides  the  numerous 
reasons  of  a  public  nature  for  uniting  South  and  North 
Britain  under  a  similar  system  of  government,  James  saw 
a  strong  personal  interest  for  reducing  the  turbulent  no- 
bles and  people  of  Scotland  to  the  same  submissive  and 
quiet  state  in  which  he  found  England,  but  in  which  it  was 
not  his  good  fortune  to  leave  it.  With  this  view  he  pro- 
posed, that  the  Legislature  of  both  nations  should  appoint 
Commissioners,  to  consider  the  terms  on  which  it  might 
be  possible  to  unite  them  under  the  same  constitution. 
With  some  difficulty  on  both  sides,  the  Parliament  of 
England  was  prevailed  on  to  name  forty-four  Commis- 
sioners, while  the  Scottish  Parliament  appointed  thirty-six, 
to  consider  this  important  subject. 

The  very  first  conferences  showed  how  impossible  it 
was  to  accomplish  the  desired  object,  until  time  should 
have  removed  or  softened  those  prejudices  en  both  sides, 
which  had  long  existed  during  the  state  of  separation  and 
hostility  betwixt  the  two  nations.  The  English  Commis- 
sioners demanded,  as  a  preliminary  stipulation,  that  the 
whole  system  of  English  law  should  be  at  once  ex- 
tended to  Scotland.  The  Scots  rejected  the  proposal 
with  disdain,  justly  alleging,  that  nothing  less  than  abso- 
lute conquest  by  force  of  arms  could  authorize  the  sub- 
jection of  an  independent  nation  to  the  customs  and  laws 
of  a  foreign  country.  The  treaty,  therefore,  was  in  a 
great  degree  shipwrecked  at  the  very  commencement — 
the  proposal  for  the  union  was  suffered  to  fall  asleep,  and 
the  King  had  the  disadvantage  of  having  excited  the  sus- 
picions and  fears  of  the  Scottish  lawyers,  who  had  been 
threatened  with  the  total  destruction  of  their  profession 
And  the  profession  of  the  law,  which  must  be  influential 
in  every  government,  was  particularly  so  in  Scotland,  as 
it  was  chiefly  practised  by  the  sons  of  the  higher  class  of 
gentry. 

Though  in  a  great  measure  disappointed  in  his  meas- 
ures for  effecting  a  general  union  and  correspondence  of 


40  INTRODUCTION    OF    EPISCOPACY 

laws  between  the  two  nations,  James  remained  extremely 
desirous  to  obtain  at  least  an  ecclesiastical  conformity  of 
opinion,  by  bringing  the  form  and  constitution  of  the  Scot- 
tish Church  as  near  as  possible  to  tha*  of  England.  What 
he  attempted  and  accomplished  in  this  respect,  forms  an 
important  part  of  the  history  of  his  reign,  and  gave  oc- 
casion to  some  of  the  most  remarkable  and  calamitous 
events  in  that  of  his  successor. 

I  must  remind  you,  my  dear  child,  that  the  Reforma- 
tion was  effected  by  very  different  agency  in  England, 
from  what  operated  a  similar  change  in  Scotland.  The 
new  plans  of  church  government  adopted  in  the  two  na- 
tions did  not  in  the  least  resemble  each  other,  although  the 
doctrines  which  they  teach  are  so  nearly  alike,  that  little 
distinction  can  be  traced,  save  what  is  of  a  very  subtle 
and  metaphysical  character.  But  the  .outward  forms  of 
the  two  churches  are  very  different.  (You  must  remem- 
ber that  the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  was 
originally  brought  about  by  Henry  VIII.,  whose  principal 
object  was  to  destroy  the  dependence  of  the  clergy  upon 
the  Pope,  and  transfer  to  himself,  whom  he  declared  Head 
of  the  Church  in  his  own  regal  right,  all  the  authority  and 
influence  which  had  formerly  been  enjoyed  by  the  Papa) 
See.  When,  therefore,  Henry  had  destroyed  the  mo- 
nastic establishments,  and  confiscated  their  possessions ; 
and  had  reformed  such  doctrines  of  the  church  as  he 
judged  required  amendment,  it  became  his  object  to  pre- 
serve her  general  constitution ,jand  the  gradation  of  infe- 
rior and  superior  clergy,  by  whom  her  functions  were  ad- 
ministered, because  the  promotion  was  in  a  great  measure 
distributed  by  the  hands  of  the  king  himself,  to  whom, 
therefore,  the  inferior  clergy  must  naturally  be  attached  by 
hope  of  preferment,  and  the  superior  orders  by  gratitude 
and  the  expectation  of  farther  advancement.  The  order 
of  bishops,  in  particular,  raised  to  that  rank  by  the  crown, 
and  enjoying  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords,  must  be  sup- 
posed, on  most  occasions,  willing  to  espouse  the  cause, 
and  forward  the  views  of  the  King,  in  such  debates  as 
might  occuv  in  that  assembly. 


INTO    THE    SCOTTISH    CHURCH.  41 

The  Reformation  in  Scotland  had  taken  place  by  i  sud- 
den popular  impulse,  and  the  form  of  church  government 
adopted  by  Knox,  and  the  other  preachers  under  whose 
influence  it  had  been  accomplished,  was  studiously  made 
as  different  as  possible  from  the  Roman  hierarchy.  The 
Presbyterian  system,  as  I  said  in  a  former  chapter,  was 
upon  the  model  of  the  purest  republican  simplicity  ;  the 
brethren  who  served  the  altar  claimed  and  allowed  of  no 
superiority  of  ranks,  and  of  no  influence  but  what  indi- 
viduals might  attach  to  themselves  by  superior  worth  or 
superior  talent.  The  representatives  who  formed  their 
church  courts  were  selected  by  plurality  of  votes,  and  no 
other  head  of  the  church,  visible  or  invisible,  was  ac- 
knowledged, save  the  blessed  Founder  of  the  Christian 
Religion,  in  whose  name  the  church  courts  of  Scotland 
were  convoked  and  dismissed. 

Over  a  body  so  constituted,  the  King  could  have  little 
influence  or  power  ;  nor  did  James  acquire  any  by  his 
personal  conduct.  It  was,  indeed,  partly  by  the  influence 
of  the  clergy  that  he  had  been  in  infancy  placed  upon  the 
throne ;  but,  as  their  conduct  in  this  was  regarded  by 
James,  in  his  secret  soul,  as  an  act  of  rebellion  against  his 
mother's  authority,  he  gave  the-  Kirk  of  Scotland  little 
thanks  for  what  they  had  done.  It  must  be  owned  the 
preachers  did  nothing  to  conciliate  his  favour ;  for,  al- 
though they  had  no  legal  call  to  speak  their  sentiments 
upon  public  and  political  affairs,  they  yet  entered  into  them 
without  ceremony.  The  pulpits  rang  with  invectives 
against  the  King's  ministers,  and  sometimes  against  tl  e 
King  himself  ;  and  the  more  hot-headed  among  the  clergy 
were  disposed  not  only  to  thwart  James's  inclinations,  and 
put  the  worst  construction  upon  his  intentions,  but  even 
publicly  to  insult  him  in  their  sermons,  and  favour  the 
insurrections  attempted  by  Stewart  Earl  of  Bothwell,  and 
others,  against  his  authority. — They  often  entertained  him 
with  violent  invectives  against  his  mother's  memory  ;  and, 
it  is  said,  that  on  one  occasion,  when  the  King,  losing  pa- 
tience, commanded  one  of  these  zealots  either  to  speak 


42  INTRODUCTION    OF    EPISCOPACY 

sense  crcotne  down  from  the  pulpit,  the  preacher  replied 
to  this  request,  which  one  would  have  thought  very  rea- 
sonable, "  I  tell  thee,  man,  I  will  neither  speak  sense  nor 
come  down." 

.James  did  not  see  that  these  acts  of  petulance  and  con- 
tumacy arose,  in  a  great  measure,  from  the  suspicions 
which  the  Scottish  clergy  justly  entertained  of  his  desir- 
ing to  innovate  upon  the  Presbyterian  model,  and  hastily 
concluded,  that  their  conduct,  which  was  the  result  of 
mutual  jealousies,  was  essential  to  the  character  of  the 
peculiar  form  of  church  government,  and  that  the  spirit 
of  Presbytery  was  in  itself  inimical  to  a  monarchical  estab- 
lishment. As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  obtained  the  high 
increase  of  power  which  arose  from  his  accession  to  the 
English  throne,  he  set  himself  gradually  to  new-model  the 
Scottish  Church,  so  as  to  bring  it  nearer  that  of  England. 
But  the  suspicions  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy  were  con- 
.Uantly  alive  to  their  sovereign's  intentions.  It  was  in  vain 
he  endeavoured  to  avail  himself  of  the  institution  of  an 
order  of  men  called  Superintendents,  to  whom  the  book 
of  discipline,  drawn  up  by  Knox  himself,  had  assigned  a 
sort  of  presidency  in  certain  cases,  with  power  of  inspect- 
ing the  merits  of  the  clergy.  By  this  course  James  en- 
deavoured to  introduce  a  sort  of  permanent  presidents 
into  the  several  Presbyteries.  But  the  clergy  clearly  saw 
his  ultimate  object.  "  Busk  it  up  as  bonnily  as  you  will, 
(they  said,)  bring  it  in  as  fairly  as  ^e  can,  we  see  the  honis 
of  the  mitre ;"  and  the  horns  of  the  mitre  were,  to  their 
apprehension,  as  odious  as  the  horns  of  the  Pope's  tiara, 
or  those  of  Satan  himself.  At  last  the  King  ventured  on 
a  decisive  stroke.  He  named  thirteen  bishops,  and  ob- 
tained the  consent  of  Parliament  for  restoring  them  to  the 
small  remains  of  their  dilapidated  bishoprics.  The1  othoi 
bishoprics,  seventeen  in  number,  were  converted  into 
'.em|>oral  lordships. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  leaders  of  the  Presbyterian 
di-rgy  showed  the  utmost  skill  and  courage  in  the  defence 
of  the  immunities  of  their  church.  They  were  endeared 
lo  the  peoule  by  the  purity  of  their  lives,  by  the  depth 


INTO    THE    SCOTTISH    CHURCH.  43 

of  learning  possessed  by  some,  and  the  powerful  talents 
exhibited  by  others:  above  all,  perhaps,  by  the  willing- 
ness with  which  they  submitted  to  poverty,  penalties,  and 
banishment,  rather  than  betray  the  cause  which  they  con- 
sidered as  sacred.  The  King  had  in  1605  openly  as- 
serted his  right  to  call  and  to  dissolve  the  General  Assem- 
blies of  the  Church.  Several  of  the  clergy,  in  contempt 
of  the  monarch,  summoned  and  attended  a  General  As- 
sembly at  Aberdeen.  The  opportunity  was  taken  to  chas- 
tise the  refractory  clergymen.  Five  of  their  number 
were  punished  with  banishment.  In  1606,  the  two  cele- 
brated preachers  named  Melville  were  summoned  before 
the  Council,  and  upbraided  by  the  King  with  their  resist- 
ance to  his  will.  They  defended  themselves  with  courage, 
and  claimed  the  right  of  being  tried  by  the  laws  of  Scot- 
land, a  free  kingdom,  having  laws  and  privileges  of  its 
own.  But  the  elder  Melville  furnished  a  handle  against 
them  by  his  own  imprudence. 

In  a  dehate  before  the  Privy  Council,  concerning  a  Lat- 
in copy  of  verses,  which  Andrew  Melville  bad  written  in 
derision  of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England,  he 
gave  way  to  indecent  violence,  seized  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  by  the  lawn  sleeves,  which  he  shook,  calling 
them  Romish  rags,  and  charged  the  pi  elate  as  a  breaker 
of  the  Sabbath>  the  maintainer  of  an  anti-christian  hierar- 
chy, the  persecutor  of  true  preachers,  the  enemy  of  reform- 
ed churches,  and  proclaimed  himself  his  mortal  enemy  to 
the  last  drop  of  his  blood.  This  indiscretion  and  violence 
afforded  a  pretext  for  committing  the  hot  old  Presbyte- 
rian divine  to  the  Tower  ;  and  he  was  afterwards  exiled, 
and  died  at  Sedan.  The  younger  Melville  was  confined 
to  Berwick,  several  other  clergymen  were  banished  from 
their  parishes  to  remote  parts,  and  the  Kirk  of  Scotland 
for  the  time  was  reduced  to  reluctant  submission  to  the 
King's  will.  Thus  the  order  of  bishops  was  once  more 
introduced  into  the  Scottish  Church. 

James's  projects  of  innovation  were  not  entirely  accom- 
plished by  the  introduction  of  prelacy.  The  Church  of 
England,  at  the  Reformation,  had  retained  some  partial- 


44  FIVE   ARTICLES    OF   PERTH. 

lar  rites  in  observance,  which  had  decency  at  least  to  re 
commend  them,  but  which  the  headlong  opposition  of  tho 
Presbyterians  to  every  thing  approaching  to  the  Popish 
ritual  induced  them  to  reject  with  horror.  Five  of  these 
were  introduced  into  Scotland,  by  an  enactment  passed 
by  a  parliament  held  at  Perth.  In  modern  times,  when 
the  mere  ceremonial  part  of  divine  worship  is  supposed 
to  be  of  little  consequence,  compared  with  the  temper 
and  spirit  in  which  we  approach  the  Deity,  the  Five  Ar- 
ticles of  Perth  seem  to  involve  matters  which  might  be 
dispensed  or  complied  with,  without  being  considered  as 
essential  to  salvation.  They  were  as  follow^: — 1.  It  was 
ordained  that  the  communion  should  be  received  in  a 
kneeling  posture,  and  not  sitting,  as  hitherto  practised  in 
the  Scottish  churches.  II.  That,  in  extreme  cases,  the 
communion  might  be  administered  in  private.  III.  That 
baptism  also  might,  when  necessary,  be  administered  in 
private.  IV.  That  youth,  as  they  grew  up.  should  be  con- 
firmed, as  it  is  termed,  by  the  bishop ;  being  a  kind  of 
personal  avowal  of  the  engagements  entered  into  by  god- 
fathers and  godmothers  at  the  time  of  baptism.  V.  That 
four  days,  distinguished  by  events  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  the  Christian  religion,  should  be  observed  as  hoi 
idays.  These  were  Chrrstrnas,  on  which  day  our  Sa- 
viour was  born ;  Good  Friday,  when  he  suffered  death  ; 
Easter,  when  he  arose  from  the  dead ;  and  Pentecost, 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  on  the  Apostles. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  moderate  character  of  these 
innovations,  the  utmost  difficulty  was  found  in  persuading 
even  those  of  the  Scottish  clergy  who  were  most  favour- 
able to  the  King  to  receive  them  into  the  church,  and  they 
only  did  so  on  the  assurance  that  they  should  not  be  re- 
quired to  adopt  any  additional  changes.  The  main  body 
of  the  churchmen,  though  terrified  into  sullen  acquies- 
cence, were  unanimous  in  opinion  that  the  new  regulations 
indicated  a  manifest  return  towards  Popery.  The  com- 
mon people  held  the  same  opinion  ;  and  a  thunder-storm, 
of  unusual  violence,  which  took  place  at  the  time  the 
parliament  was  sitting  for  the  adoption  of  these  obnox- 


DISORDERLY    STATE    OF    THE    BORDERS.  45 

lous  articles,  was  considered  as  a  declaration  of  the  wrath 
of  Heaven  against  those,  who  were  again  introducing  the 
rites  and  festivals  of  the  Roman  Church  into  the  pure 
and  reformed  Kirk  of  Scotland.  In  short,  this  attempt  to 
infuse  into  the  Presbyterian  model  something  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  moderate  prelacy,  was  generally  unacceptable 
to  the  church  and  to  the  nation  ;  and  it  will  be  hereafter 
shown,  that  an  endeavour  to  extend  and  heighten  the  edi- 
fice which  his  father  had  commenced,  led  the  way  to  those 
acts  of  violence  which  cost  Charles  I.  his  throne  and  life. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Disorderly  State  of  the  Borders — Characteristic  Exam- 
ple of  Border  Match-Making — Deadly  Feud  between 
the  Maxwells  and  Johnstones — Battle  of  Dryffe  Sands 
— James's  power  of  enforcing  the  Laws  increased  after 
his  accession  to  the  English  Throne — Measures  for 
restraining  the  Border  Marauder?  — The  Clan  Gra- 
ham removed  from  the  Debateablc  Land  to  Ulster  in 
Ireland — Levies  of  Soldiers  to  sene  in  Foreign  Parts 
— Mutual  Bonds  among  the  Chiefi  for  the  Preserva- 
tion of  good  order — Severe  Prosecution  of  offenders 
— The  Town  of  Berwick-upon-Tmeed  an  Independ- 
ent Jurisdiction. 

WE  are  next  to  examine  the  effect  which  James's  ac- 
cession to  the  throne  of  England  had  upon  those  lawless 
parts  of  his  kingdom,  the  Borders  and  the  Highlands,  as 
well  as  on  the  more  civilized  provinces  of  Scotland — of 
which  I  shall  take  notice  in  their  order. 

The  consequences  of  the  union  of  the  crowns  were 
more  immediately  felt  on  the  Borders,  which,  from  being 
the  extremity  of  both  countries,  were  now  converted  into 
the  centre  of  the  kingdom.  But  it  was  not  easy  to  see, 
how  the  restless  and  violent  inhabitants,  who  had  been  for 
so  many  centuries  accustomed  to  a  lawless  and  military 


-  BORDB'R    MATCH-MAKING. 

life,  were  to  conduct  themselves,  when  the  general  peace 
around  left  them  no  enemies  either  to  fight  with  or  plun- 
der. These  Borderers  were,  as  I  have  elsewhere  told 
you,  divided  into  families,  or  clans,  who  followed  a  leader 
supposed  to  be  descended  from  the  original  father  of  the 
trihe.  They  lived  in  a  great  measure  by  the  rapine,  which 
they  exercised  in  liscriminately  on  the  English,  or  their 
own  countrymen,  the  inhabitants  of  the  more  inland  dis- 
tricts, or  by  the  protection-money  which  they  exacted  for 
leaving  them  undisturbed.  This  kind  of  plundering  was 
esteemed  by  them  in  the  highest  degree  honourable  and 
praiseworthy  ;  and  the  following,  as  well  as  many  other 
curious  stories,  is  an  example  of  this  : — 

A  young  gentleman,  of  a  distinguished  family  belonging 
to  one  of  these  Border  tribes,  or  clans,  made,  either  from 
the  desire  of  plunder,  or  from  revenge,  a  raid,  or  incur- 
sion, upon  the  lands  of  Sir  Gideon  Murray  of  Elibank, 
afterwards  deputy-treasurer  of  Scotland,  and  a  great  fa- 
vourite of  James  VI.  The  Laird  of  Elibank,  having  got 
his  people  under  arms,  engaged  the  invaders,  and  en- 
countering them  when  they  were  encumbered  with  spoil, 
defeated  them,  and  made  the  leader  of  the  band  prison- 
er. He  was  brought  to  the  castle  of  his  conqueror,  when 
the  lady  inquired  of  her  victorious  husband  "  what  he  in- 
tended to  do  with  his  captive  ?" — "  Hang  him,  dame,  as  a 
man  taken  redhand  in  the  act  of  robbery  and  violence." 
— "  That  is  not  like  your  wisdom,  Sir  Gideon,"  answer- 
ed his  more  considerate  lady.  "  If  you  put  to  death  this 
young  gentleman,  you  will  enter  into  a  deadly  feud  with 
his  numerous  and  powerful  clan.  You  must  therefore  do 
a  wiser  thing,  and,  instead  of  hanging  him,  we  will  cause 
him  to  marry  our  youngest  daughter,  Meg  with  the  mei- 
tde  mouth,  without  any  tocher,"  (that  is,  without  any  por- 
tion.) The  Laird  joyfully  consented  ;  for  this  Meg  with 
the  large  mouth  was  so  ugly,  that  there  was  very  little 
chance  of  her  getting  a  husband  in  any  other  circumstan- 
ces ;  and,  in  fact,  when  the  alternative  of  such  a  mar- 
.iage,  or  death  by  the  gallows,  was  proposed  to  the  poor 
prisoner,  he  was  for  some  time  disposed  to  choose  the  lat- 


BORDER    MATCH-MAKING.  47 

ter  ;  nor  was  it  without  difficulty  that  he  could  be  per- 
suaded to  save  his  life  at  the  expense  of  marrying  Meg 
Murray.  He  did  so  at  last,  however  ;  and  it  is  said,  that 
Meg,  thus  forced  upon  him,  made  an  excellent  and  af- 
*ectionate  wife  ;  but  the  unusual  size  of  mouth  was  sup- 
posed to  remain  discernible  in  their  descendants  for  sev- 
eral generations.  1  mention  this  anecdote,  because  it  oc- 
curred during  James  the  Sixth's  reign,  and  shows,  in  a 
striking  manner,  how  little  the  Borderers  had  improved  in 
their  sense  of  morality,  or  distinctions  between  right  and 


A  more  important,  but  not  more  characteristic  event. 
which  happened  not  long  afterwards,  shows,  in  its  pro- 
gress, their  utter  lawlessness  and  contempt  of  legal  author- 
ity m  this  reign,  and,  in  its  conclusion,  the  increased  pow- 
er of  the  monarch. 

There  had  been  long  and  deadly  feud,  on  the  West 
Borders,  betwixt  the  two  great  families  of  Maxwell  and 
Johnstone.  The  former  house  was  the  most  wealthy  and 
powerful  family  in  Dumfries-shire  and  its  vicinity,  and  had 
great  influence  among  the  families  inhabiting  the  more 
level  part  of  that  country.  Their  chieftain  had  the  title 
of  Lord  Maxwell,  and  claimed  that  of  Earl  of  Morton. 

The  Johnstones,  on  the  other  hand,  were  neither  equal 
to  the  Maxwells  in  numbers  nor  in  power  ;  but  they  were 
a  race  of  uncommon  hardihood,  much  attached  to  each 
other  and  their  chieftain,  and  residing  in  th^  strong  and 
mountainous  district  of  Annandale,  used  to  sally  from 
thence  as  from  a  fortress,  and  return  to  its  fastnesses  after 
having  accomplished  their  inroads.  They  were,  therefore, 
able  to  maintain  their  ground  against  the  Maxwells,  though 
more  numerous  than  themselves. 

So  well  was  this  known  to  be  the  case,  that  when,  in 
1  585,  the  Lord  Maxwell  was  declared  to  be  a  rebel,  a 
commission  was  given  to  the  Laird  of  Johnstone  to  pursue 
and  apprehend  him.  In  this,  however,  Johnstone  was 
unsuccessful.  Two  bands  of  hired  soldiers,  whom  the 
government  had  sent  to  his  assistance,  were  destroyed  by 
the  Maxwells  ;  and  Lockwood,  the  chiel  house  of  the 


48  DEADLY     FKITD    BETWEEN    THE 

Laird,  was  taken  and  wantonly  burnt,  in  order,  as  the 
Maxwells  expressed  it,  that  Lady  Jobnstone  miiUit  have 
light  to  put  on  her  hood.  Johnstone  himself  was  subse- 
quently defeated  and  made  prisoner.  Being  a  man  of 
proud  and  haughty  temper,  he  is  said  to  have  died  of  grief 
at  the  disgrace  which  he  incurred  ;  and  thus  there  com- 
menced a  long  series  of  mutual  injuries  between  the  hos- 
tile clans. 

Shortly  after  this  catastrophe,  Maxwell,  being  restored 
to  the  King's  favour,  was  once  more  placed  in  the  situation 
of  Warden  of  the  West  Borders,  and  an  alliance  was 
made  betwixt  him  and  Sir  James  Johnstone,  in  which  they 
and  their  two  clans  agreed  to  stand  by  each  other  against 
all  the  world.  This  agreement  being  entered  into,  the 
clan  of  Johnstone  concluded  they  had  little  to  apprehend 
from  the  justice  of  the  new  Lord  Warden,  so  long  as  they 
did  not  plunder  any  of  the  name  of  Maxwell.  They  ac- 
cordingly descended  into  the  valley  of  the  Nith,  and  com- 
mitted great  spoil  on  the  lands  belonging  to  Douglas  of 
D-umlanrig,  Creichton  Lord  Sanquhar,  Grierson  of  Lagg. 
and  Kirkpatrick  of  Closeburn,  all  of  them  independent 
barons  of  high  birth  and  great  power.  The  injured  parties 
pursued  the  depredators  with  forces  hastily  assembled,  but 
were  defeated  with  slaughter  in  their  attempt  to  recover 
the  prey.  The  Barons  next  carried  their  complaints  to 
Maxwell  the  Warden,  who  alleged  his  late  alliance  with 
Johnstone  as  a  reason  why  he  could  not  yield  them  tne 
redress  which  his  office  entitled  them  to  expect  at  his 
hands.  But  when,  to  make  up  for  such  risk  as  he  might 
incur  by  renewing  his  enmity  with  the  Johnstones.  the 
Barons  of  Nithsdale  offered  to  bind  themselves  by  a  bond 
of  man-rent,  as  it  was  called,  to  become  the  favourers  and 
followers  of  Lord  Maxwell  in  all  his  quarrels,  excepting 
against  the  King,  the  temptation  became  too  strong  to  be 
overcome,  and  he  resolved  to  sacrifice  his  newly  formed 
friendship  with  Johnstone  to  the  desire  of  extending  his 
authority  over  so  powerful  a  confederacy.  The  secret  of 
this  association  did  not  long  remain  concealed  from  John- 
stone,  who  saw  that  his  own  destruction  and  the  vuin  of 


MAXWELLS    AND    JOHNSTON  KS.  49 

his  clan  were  the  objects  aimed  at,  and  hastened  to  apply 
to  his  neighbours  in  the  east  and  south  for  assistance. 
Buccleuch,  the  relative  of  Johnstone,  and  by  far  his  most 
powerful  ally,  was  then  in  foreign  parts,  But  the  Laird 
of  Elibank,  mentioned  in  the  last  story,  bore  the  banner 
of  Buccleuch  in  person,  and  assembled  a  great  number 
of  the  clan  of  Scott,  whom  our  historians  term  the  great- 
est robbers  and  fiercest  fighters  among  the  Border  clans. 
The  Elliots  of  Liddesdale  also  assisted  Johnstone  ;  and 
his  neighbours  on  the  southern  parts,  the  Grahams  of  the 
Debateable  Land,  from  hopes  of  plunder  and  ancient  en- 
mity to  the  Maxwells,  sent  also  a  considerable  number  of 
spears. 

Thus  prepared  for  war,  Johnstone  took  the  field  with 
activity,  while  Maxwell,  assembling  hastily  his  own  forces, 
and  those  of  his  new  followers,  the  Nithsdale  Barons,  in- 
vaded Annandale  with  the  royal  banner  displayed,  and  a 
force  of  upwards  of  two  thousand  men.  Johnstone,  un- 
equal in  numbers,  stood  on  the  defensive,  and  kept  pos- 
session of  the  woods  and  strong  ground,  waiting  an  op- 
portunity of  fighting  to  advantage  ;  while  Maxwell,  in 
contempt  of  him,  formed  the  siege  of  the  castle  or  tower 
of  Lockerby,  the  fortress  of  a  Johnstone,  who  was  then 
in  arms  with  his  chief.  His  wife,  a  woman  of  a  mascu- 
line disposition,  the  sister  or  daughter  of  the  Laird  who 
had  died  in  Maxwell's  prison,  defended  his  place  of  resi- 
dence. While  Maxwell  endeavoured  to  storm  the  castle, 
and  while  it  was  bravely  defended  by  its  female  captain, 
the  chief  received  information  that  the  Laird  of  Johnsiono 
was  advancing  to  its  relief.  He  drew  off  from  the  siege, 
and  caused  it  to  be  published  through  his  little  army  that 
he  would  give  a  "  ten-pound  land,"  that  is,  land  rated  in 
the  cess-books  at  that  yearly  amount,  "  to  any  one  who 
would  bring  him  the  head  or  hand  of  the  Laird  of  John- 
stone."  When  this  was  reported  to  Johnstone,  he  said 
he  had  no  ten-pcund  lands  to  offer,  but  that  he  would  be- 
stow a  five-merk  land  upon  the  man  who  should  br«ng 
him  the  head  or  hand  of  Lord  Maxwell. 
883 


50  BATTLE    OF   DRYFFE    SANDS. 

Tlie  cot.flict  took  place  close  by  the  river  Dryffe  neai 
Lochmaben,  and  is  called  the  Battle  of  Dryffe  Sands.  It 
was  managed  by  Johnstone  with  considerable  military  skill. 
He  showed  at  first  only  a  handful  of  horsemen,  who  made 
a  hasty  attack  upon  Maxwell's  army,  and  then  retired  in  a 
manner  which  induced  the  enemy  to  consider  them  as 
defeated,  and  led  them  to  pursue  in  disorder  with  loud 
acclamations  of  victory.  The  Maxwells  and  their  con- 
federates were  thus  exposed  to  a  sudden  and  desperate 
charge  from  the  main  body  of  the  Johnstones  and  their 
allies,  who  fell  upon  them  while  their  ranks  were  broken, 
and  compelled  them  to  take  flight.  The  Maxwells 
suffered  grievously  in  the  retreat — many  were  overtaken 
in  the  streets  of  Lockerby,  and  cut  down  or  slashed  in 
the  face  by  the  pursuers  ;  a  kind  of  blow,  which  to  this 
day  is  called  in  that  country  a  "  Lockerby  lick." 

Maxwell  himself,  an  elderly  man  and  heavily  armed, 
was  borne  down  from  his  horse  in  the  beginning  of  the 
conflict,  and  as  he  named  his  name  and  offered  to  surren- 
der, his  right  hand,  which  he  stretched  out  for  mercy,  was 
cut  from  his  body.  Thus  far  history  ;  but  family  tradi- 
tion adds  the  following  circumstance  :  The  Lady  of 
Lockerby,  who  was  besieged  in  her  tower  as  already  men- 
tioned, had  witnessed  from  the  battlements  the  approach 
of  the  Laird  of  Johnstone,  and  as  soon  as  the  enemy 
withdrew  from  the  blockade  of  the  fortress,  had  sent  to 
the  assistance  of  her  chief  the  few  servants  who  had  as- 
sisted in  the  defence.  After  this  she  heard  the  tumult  of 
battle,  but  as  she  could  not  from  the  tower  see  the  place 
where  it  was  fought,  she  remained  in  an  agony  of  suspense, 
until,  as  the  noise  seemed  to  pass  away  in  a  westerly  di- 
rection, she  could  endure  the  uncertainty  no  longer,  but 
sallied  out  from  the  tower,  with  only  one  female  attendant, 
to  see  how  the  day  had  gone.  As  a  measure  of  precau- 
tion, she  locked  the  strong  oaken  dcor  and  the  iron-grate 
with  which  a  border  fortress  was  commonly  secured,  and 
knitting  the  large  keys  on  a  thong,  took  them  with  hei 
hanging  on  her  arm. 


ASSASSINATION     OF     SIR    JAMES    JOHNSTONE.        5J 


en  the  Lady  of  Lockerby  entered  on  the  field  of 
battle,  she  found  the  relics  of  a  bloody  fight  ;  the  lit  le 
valley  was  covered  with  slain  men  and  horses,  and  broken 
annour,  besides  many  wounded,  who  were  incapable  01 
further  effort  for  saving  themselves.  Amongst  others  she 
saw  lying  beneath  a  thorn  tree  a  tall,  gray-haired,  noble- 
looking  man,  arrayed  in  bright  armour,  but  bareheaded. 
and  bleeding  to  death  from  the  loss  of  his  right  hand.  He 
asked  her  for  mercy  and  help  with  a  faltering  voice  ;  but 
the  idea  of  deadly  feud,  in  that  time  and  country,  closed 
all  access  to  compassion  even  in  a  female  bosom.  She 
saw  before  her  only  the  enemy  of  her  clan,  and  the  cause 
of  her  father's  captivity  and  death  ;  and  raising  the  pon- 
derous keys  which  she  bore  along  with  her.  the  Lady  of 
Lockerby  is  commonly  reported  to  have  dashed  out  the 
brains  of  the  vanquished  Lord  Maxwell. 

The  battle  of  DryfFe  Sands  was  remarkable  as  the  last 
great  clan  battle  fought  on  the  Borders,  and  it  led  to  the 
renewal  of  the  strife  betwixt  the  Maxwells  and  Johnstones, 
with  every  circumstance  of  ferocity  which  could  add  hor- 
ror to  civil  war.  The  last  distinguished  act  of  the  trag- 
edy took  place  thus  :  — 

The  son  of  the  slain  Lord  Maxwell  invited  Sir  James 
Jolmstone  to  a  friendly  conference,  to  which  each  chief- 
tain engaged  to  bring  one  friend  only.  They  met  at  a 
place  called  Auchrnanhill,  on  the  6th  August  1608,  when 
the  attendant  of  Lord  Maxwell,  after  falling  into  bitter 
and  reproachful  language  with  Jolmstone  of  Gunmanlie, 
who  was  in  attendance  on  his  chief,  at  length  fired  his 
pistol.  Sir  James  Johnstone  turning  round  to  see  what 
had  happened,  Lord  Maxwell  treacherously  shot  him 
through  the  back  with  a  pistol  charged  with  a  brace  of 
bullets.  While  the  gallant  old  knight  lay  dying  on  the 
ground,  Maxwell  rode  round  him  with  the  view  of  com- 
pleting Hs  crime,  but  Johnstone  defended  himself  with  his 
sword  till  strength  and  life  failed  him. 

This  final  catastrophe  of  such  a  succession  of  bloody 
acts  of  revenge,  took  place  several  years  after  the  union 
of  the  crowns,  and  the  consequences,  so  difFeient  from 


Sat         SKVKKITIKS    AGAINST    TIIK     ARMSTRONG!. 

(hose  which  ensued  upon  former  occasions,  show  how 
effectually  the  king's  authority,  and  the  power  of  enforc- 
ing the  course  of  equal  justice,  had  increased  in  conse- 
quence of  that  desirable  event.  You  rnay  observe,  from 
the  incidents  mentioned,  that  in  1585,  when  Lord  Max- 
well assaulted  and  made  prisoner  the  Laird  of  Johnstone, 
then  the  king's  warden,  and  acting  in  his  name,  and  com- 
mitted him  to  the  captivity  in  which  he  died,  James  was 
totally  unequal  to  the  task  of  vindicating  his  royal  author- 
ity, and  saw  himself  compelled  to  receive  Maxwell  into 
favour  and  trust,  as  if  he  had  done  nothing  contrary  to 
the  laws.  Nor  was  the  royal  authority  more  effectual  in 
1598,  when  Maxwell,  acting  as  royal  warden,  and  having 
the  king's  banner  displayed,  was  in  his  turn  defeated  and 
slain,  in  so  melancholy  and  cruel  a  manner,  at  Dryffe 
Sands.  On  the  contrary,  Sir  James  Johnstone  was  not 
only  pardoned,  but  restored  to  favour  and  trust  by  the  king. 
But  there  was  a  conspicuous  difference  in  the  consequences 
of  the  murder  which  took  place  at  Auchmanhill  in  1608. 
Lord  Maxwell,  finding  no  refuge  in  the  Border  country, 
was  obliged  to  escape  to  France,  where  he  resided  for  two 
or  three  years  ;  but  afterwards  venturing  to  return  to 
Scotland,  he  was  apprehended  in  the  wilds  of  Caithness, 
and  brought  to  trial  at  Edinburgh.  James,  desirous  on 
this  occasion  to  strike  terror,  by  a  salutary  warning,  into 
the  factious  nobility  and  disorderly  Borderers,  caused  the 
criminal  to  be  publicly  beheaded  on  21st  May,  1613. 

Many  instances  might  be  added  to  show  that  the  course 
of  justice  on  the  Border  began,  after  the  accession  of 
James  to  the  English  throne,  to  flow  with  a  less  interrupt- 
ed stream,  even  where  men  of  rank  and  power  were  con- 
cerned. 

The  inferior  class  of  freebooters  were  treated  with 
finch  less  ceremony.  Proclamations  were  made,  that 
none  of  the  inhabitants  of  either  side  of  the  Border  (ex- 
cept noblemen  and  gentlemen  of  unsuspected  character) 
should  retain  in  their  possession  armour  or  weapons,  offen- 
sive or  defensive,  or  keep  any  horse  above  the  value  of 
fifty  shillings.  Particular  clans,  described  as  broken  men, 


BANI&HMBNT    OF    TUB    ORAIIAMS  53 

tvere  especially  discharged  the  use  of  weapons.  Ihe 
celebrated  clan  of  Armstrong  had,  on  the  very  night  in 
which  Queen  Elizabeth's  deatli  became  public,  concluding 
that  a  time  of  misrule,  by  which  they  had  hitherto  made 
their  harvest,  was  again  approaching,  and  desirous  ol 
losing  no  time,  made  a  fierce  incursion  into  England,  and 
done  much  mischief.  But  such  a  consequence  had  been 
foreseen  and  provided  against.  A  strong  body  of  soldiers, 
both  English  and  Scots,  swept  along  the  Border,  and 
severely  punished  the  marauders,  blowing  up  their  fort- 
resses with  gunpowder,  destroying  their  lands,  and  driving 
away  their  cattle  and  flocks.  The  Armstrongs  appear 
never  to  have  recovered  their  consequence  after  this 
severe  chastisement ;  nor  are  there  many  of  this  celebrat- 
ed clan  now  to  be  found  among  the  landholders  of  Lid- 
desdale,  where  they  once  possessed  the  whole  district. 

The  Grahams,  long  the  inhabitants  of  the  Debateable 
Land  which  was  claimed  both  by  England  and  Scotland, 
were  still  more  severely  dealt  with.  They  were  very 
brave  and  active  Borderers  attached  to  England,  for  which 
country,  and  particularly  in  Edward  VI. 's  time,  they  had 
often  done  good  service.  But  they  were  also  very  law- 
less, and  their  incursions  were  as  much  dreaded  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Cumberland  as  by  those  of  the  Scottish 
frontier.  This,  indeed,  was  the  subject  of  complaint  on 
both  sides  of  the  Border  ;  and  the  poor  Grahams,  seeing 
no  alternative,  were  compelled  to  sign  a  petition  to  the 
King,  stating  themselves  to  be  unfit  persons  to  dwell  in 
the  country  which  they  now  inhabited,  and  praying  that  he 
would  provide  the  means  of  transporting  them  elsewhere, 
where  his  paternal  goodness  should  assign  them  the  means 
of  life.  The  whole  clan,  a  very  few  individuals  except- 
ed,  were  thus  deprived  of  their  lands  and  residences,  and 
transported  to  the  county  of  Ulster,  in  Ireland,  where  they 
were  settled  on  lands  which  had  been  acquired  from  the 
conquered  Irish.  There  is  a  list  which  shows  the  rale  at 
winch  the  county  of  Cumberland  was  taxed  for  the  ex- 


54          SOLDI  liKS    TO    SERVE    IN    FORKHiX    PARTS. 

portation  of  these  poor  fellows,  as  if  they  had  been  so 
many  bullocks. 

Another  efficient  mode  of  getting  rid  of  a  warlike  and 
disorderly  population,  who,  though  an  admirable  detente 
of  a  country  in  time  of  war,  must  have  been  great  scourge-s- 
in the  time  of  the  profound  peace  to  which  the  Border 
districts  were  consigned  after  the  close  of  the  English 
wars,  was  the  levying  a  large  body  of  soldiers  to  serve  in 
foreign  countries.  The  love  of  military  adventure  had 
already  carried  one  legion  to  serve  the  Dutch  in  their  de- 
fence against  the  Spaniards,  and  they  had  done  great 
service  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  particularly  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Mechline,  in  1578  ;  where,  impatient  of  the  heat 
of  the  weather,  to  the  astonishment  of  both  friends  and 
enemies,  the  Scottish  auxiliaries  flung  off  their  upper  gar- 
ments, and  fought  like  furies  in  their  shirts.  The  circum- 
stance is  pointed  out  in  the  plan  of  the  battle  which  is  to 
be  found  in  Strada,  with  the  explanation — "  Here  the 
Scots  fought  naked." 

Buccleuch  levied  a  large  additional  force  from  the  Bor- 
der, whose  occupation  in  their  native  country  was  gone 
for  ever.  These  also  distinguished  themselves  in  the  wars 
of  the  Low  Countries.  It  may  be  supposed  that  very 
many  of  them  perished  in  the  field,  and  the  descendants 
of  others  stil!  survive  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  Germany. 

In  addition  to  the  relief  afforded  by  such  an  outlet  for 
the  superfluous  population,  whose  numbers  greatly  ex- 
ceeded what  the  land  could  have  supplied  with  food,  and 
who,  in  fact,  had  only  lived  upon  plunder,  bonds  were 
entered  into  by  the  men  of  substance  and  family  on  the 
Borders,  not  only  obliging  themselves  to  abstain  from  de- 
predations, but  to  stand  by  each  other  in  putting  down  and 
preventing  such  evil  doings  at  the  hand  of  others,  and  in 
making  common  cause  against  any  clan,  branch,  or  sur- 
name, who  might  take  offence  at  any  individual  for  act.i:.tf 
in  prosecution  of  this  engagement.  They  bound  them 
elves  also  not  only  to  seize  and  deliver  to  justice  such 
nieves  as  should  take  refuge  in  their  grounds,  but  to  dis- 
posseso  froiv.  their  estates  all  persons  who  could  be  sus- 


JEUDAUT    JUSTICE.  55 

peeled  of  such  offences,  and  to  supply  their  place  with 
honest  and  peaceable  subjects.  I  am  possessed  of  such 
a  bond,  dated  in  the  year  1612,  and  subscribed  by  about 
twenty  landholders,  chiefly  of  the  name  of  Scott. 

Finally,  an  unusually  severe  and  keen  prosecution  of 
all  who  were  convicted,  accused,  or  even  suspected  of 
offence  against  the  peace  of  the  Border,  was  set  on  foot 
by  George  Home,  Earl  of  Dunbar,  James's  able  but  not 
very  scrupulous  minister,  and  prosecuted  so  severely  as 
to  give  rise  to  the  proverb  of  Jeddart  (or  Jedburgh)  jus- 
tice, by  which  it  is  said  a  criminal  was  hanged  first  and 
tried  afterwards  ;  the  truth  of  which  is  affirmed  by  his- 
torians as  a  well-known  fact  occurring  in  numerous  in- 
stances. Cruel  as  these  measures  were,  they  tended  to 
remedy  a  disease  which  seemed  almost  desperate.  Rent, 
the  very  name  of  which  had  till  that  period  scarcely  been 
heard  on  the  Border,  began  to  be  paid  for  property,  and 
the  proprietors  of  land  turned  their  thoughts  to  rural  in- 
dustry, instead  of  the  arts  of  predatory  warfare.  But  it 
was  more  than  a  century  ere  the  country,  so  long  a  harass- 
ed and  disputed  frontier,  gained  the  undisturbed  appear- 
ance of  a  civilized  land. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  Borders  I  ought  to 
explain  to  you,  that  as  the  possession  of  the  strong  and 
important  town  of  Berwick  had  been  so  long  and  fiercely 
disputed  between  England  and  Scotland,  and  as  the  latter 
country  had  never  surrendered  or  abandoned  her  claim 
to  the  place,  though  it  had  so  long  remained  an  English 
possession,  James,  to  avoid  giving  offence  to  either,  left 
the  question  undecided  ;  and  since  the  union  of  the 
Crowns  the  city  is  never  spoken  of  as  part  of  England  or 
Scotland,  but  as  the  Good  Town  of  Berwick-npon-Tweed ; 
and  when  a  law  is  made  for  North  and  South  Britain, 
without  special  and  distinct  mention  of  this  ancient  town, 
that  iw  is  of  no  force  or  avail  within  its  piecincts. 


66  WILD    STATE    OF    THE    WESTERN    ISLES. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Wild  state  of  the  Western  Islands — Suffocation  of  the 
Inhabitants  of  Eigg,  by  filling  a  cave,  in  which  they 
had  concealed  themselves,  with  smoke. — Story  of  ^lian- 
a-Sop  Dreadful  Death  by  Thirst Massacre  oj 

Lowlanders,  who  had  made  a  Settlement  in  Lewis  ana 
Harris —  The  whole  Western  Isles,  excepting  Skye  ana 
Isewis,  offered  for  800/.  to  the  Marquis  of  Huntly, 
who  refuses  to  purchase  them  at  that  sum. 

THE  Highlands  and  Western  Islands  were  in  no  respect 
so  much  affected  by  the  union  of  the  crowns  as  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Borders.  The  accession  of  James  to 
the  English  throne  was  of  no  great  consequence  to  them, 
unless  in  so  far  as  it  rendered  the  King  more  powerful, 
and  gave  him  the  means  of  occasionally  sending  bodies 
of  troops  into  their  fortresses  to  compel  them  to  order  ; 
and  this  was  a  measure  of  unusual  rigour,  which  was  but 
seldom  resorted  to.  The  Highland  tribes,  therefore,  re- 
mained in  the  sa?ne  state  as  before,  using  the  same  dress, 
wielding  the  same  arms,  divided  into  the  same  clans,  each 
governed  by  its  own  patriarch,  and  living  in  all  respects 
as  their  ancestors  had  lived  for  many  centuries  before 
them.  Or  if  there  were  some  marks  of  softened  manners 
among  those  Gaelic  tribes  who  resided  on  the  mainland, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Hebrides  or  Western  Isles,  adjacent 
to  the  coast  of  Scotland,  are  described  to  us  as  utterly 
barbarous.  A  historian  of  the  period  says,  that  "  the 
Highlanders  who  dwell  on  the  mainland  though  sufficiently 
wild,  show  some  shade  of  civilization  ;  but  those  in  the 
islands  are  without  laws  or  morals,  and  totally  destitute  ol 
religion  and  humanity."  Some  stories  of  their  feuds  are 
indeed  preserved,  which  go  far  to  support  this  general 
accusation.  I  will  tell  you  one  or  two  of  them. 


MACDONAI.DS     AM)    MACI.Kon*.  5? 

The  principal  possessors  of  the  Hebrides  were  orig- 
inally of  the  name  of  MacDonald,  the  whole  being  under 
the  government  of  a  succession  of  chiefs,  who  bore  the 
name  of  Donald  of  the  Isles,  as  we  have  already  men- 
tioned, and  were  possessed  of  authority  almost  indepen- 
dent of  the  Kings  of  Scotland.  But  this  great  family 
becoming  divided  into  two  or  three  branches,  other  chiefs 
settled  in  some  of  the  islands,  and  disputed  the  property 
of  the  original  proprietors.  Thus,  the  MacLeods,  a  pow- 
erful and  numerous  clan,  who  had  extensive  estates  on 
the  mainland,  made  themselves  masters,  at  a  very  early 
period,  of  a  great  part  of  the  large  island  of  Skye,  seized 
upon  much  of  the  Long  Island,  as  the  isles  of  Lewis  and 
Harris  are  called,  and  fought  fiercely  with  the  MacDon- 
alds,  and  other  tribes  of  the  islands.  The  following  is  an 
example  of  the  mode  in  which  these  feuds  were  con- 
ducted. 

About  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  boat,  manned 
by  one  or  two  of  the  MacLeods,  landed  in  Eigg,  a  small 
island,  peopled  by  the  MacDonalds.  They  were  at  first 
hospitably  received  ;  but  having  been  guilty  of  some  in- 
civility to  the  young  women  on  the  island,  it  was  so  much 
resented  by  the  inhabitants,  that  they  tied  the  MacLeods, 
hand  and  foot,  and  putting  them  on  board  of  their  own 
boat,  towed  it  to  sea  and  set  it  adrift,  leaving  the  wretched 
men,  bound  as  they  were,  to  perish  by  famine,  or  by  the 
winds  and  waves,  as  chance  should  determine.  But  fate 
so  ordered  it,  that  a  boat  belonging  to  the  Laird  of  Mac- 
Leod fell  in  with  that  which  had  the  captives  on  board, 
and  brought  them  in  safety  to  the  Laird's  castle  of  Dun- 
vegan  in  Skye,  where  they  complained  of  the  injury  which 
they  had  sustained  from  the  MacDonalds  of  Eigg.  Mac- 
Leod, in  great  rage,  put  to  sea  with  his  galleys,  manned 
by  a  large  body  of  his  people,  which  the  men  of  Eigg, 
could  not  entertain  any  rational  hope  of  resisting  Learn- 
ing that  their  incensed  enemy  was  approaching  with 
superior  forces  ind  deep  vows  of  revenge,  the  inhabitants, 
who  knew  they  had  no  mercy  to  expect  at  MacLeod's 
3* 


58  SUFFOCATION    BY    SMOKE    OF    TI1K 

hands  resolved,  as  the  best  chance  of  safety  in  their  power 
to  conceal  themselves  in  a  large  cavern  on  the  sea  shore. 

This  place  was  particularly  well  calculated  for  that 
purpose.  The  entrance  resembles  that  of  a  fox-earth, 
being  an  opening  so  small  that  a  man  cannot  enter  save  by 
creeping  on  hands  and  knees.  A  rill  of  water  falls  from 
the  top'  of  the  rock,  and  serves,  or  rather  served  at  that 
ocriod  we  speak  of,  wholly  to  conceal  the  aperture.  A 
stranger,  even  when  apprised  of  the  existence  of  such  a 
cave,  would  find  the  greatest  difficulty  in  discovering  the 
entrance.  Within,  the  cavern  rises  to  a  great  height,  and 
the  floor  is  covered  with  white  dry  sand.  It  is  extensive 
enough  to  contain  a  great  number  of  people.  The  whole 
inhabitants  of  Eigg,  who,  with  their  wives  and  families, 
amounted  to  nearly  two  hundred  souls,  took  refuge  within 
Us  precincts. 

MacLeod  arrived  with  his  armament,  and  landed  on 
the  island,  but  could  discover  no  one  on  whom  to  wreak 
his  vengeance — all  was  a  desert.  The  MacLeods  de- 
stroyed the  huts  of  the  islanders,  and  plundered  what 
property  they  could  discover  ;  but  the  vengeance  of  the 
chieftain  could  not  be  satisfied  with  such  petty  injuries. 
He  knew  that  the  inhabitants  must  either  have  fled  in  their 
boats  to  one  of  the  islands  possessed  by  the  MacDonalds, 
or  that  they  must  be  concealed  somewhere  in  Kigg. 
After  making  a  strict  but  unsuccessful  search  for  two  days, 
MacLeod  had  appointed  the  third  to  leave  his  anchorage, 
when,  in  the  grey  of  the  morning,  one  of  the  seamen  be- 
held from  the  deck  of  his  galley  the  figure  of  a  man  on 
the  island.  This  was  a  spy  whom  the  MacDonalds,  im- 
patient of  their  confinement  in  the  cavern,  had  imprudently 
sent  out  to  see  whether  MacLeod  had  retired  or  riot. 
The  poor  fellow,  when  he  saw  himself  discovered,  en- 
deavoured, by  doubling,  after  the  manner  of  a  hare  or 
fox,  to  obliterate  the  track  of  his  footsteps,  and  prevent 
its  being  discovered  where  he  had  re-entered  the  cavern. 
But  all  his  art  was  in  vain  ;  the  invaders  again  landed, 
and  racked  him  to  the  entrance  of  the  cavern. 


MA(;i)<)NAM).S    OF    KI(J*i.  59 

MacLeod  then  summoned  those  who  were  within  i^ 
and  called  upon  them  to  deliver  up  the  individuals  who 
had  maltreated  his  men,  to  be  disposed  of  at  his  pleasure. 
The  MacDonalds,  still  confident  in  the  strength  of  their 
fastness,  which  no  assailant  could  enter  but  on  hands  and 
knees,  refused  to  surrender  their  clansmen. 

MacLeod  then  commenced  a  dreadful  work  of  indis- 
criminate vengeance.  He  caused  his  people,  by  means 
of  a  ditch  cut  above  the  top  of  the  rock,  to  turn  away  the 
stream  of  water  which  fell  over  the  entrance  of  the  preci- 
pice. This  being  done,  the  MacLeods  collected  all  the 
combustibles  which  could  be  found  on  the  island,  partic- 
ularly quantities  of  dry  heather,  piled  them  up  against  the 
aperture,  and  maintained  an  immense  fire  for  many  hours, 
until  the  smoke,  penetrating  into  the  inmost  recesses  of 
the  cavern,  stifled  to  death  every  creature  within.  There 
is  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  this  story,  dreadful  as  it  is. 
The  cavern  is  often  visited  by  strangers  ;  and  I  have 
myself  seen  the  place  where  the  bones  of  the  murdered 
MacDonalds  still  remain,  lying  as  thick  on  the  floor  of  the 
cave  as  in  the  charnel-house  of  a  church. 

The  MacLeans,  in  like  manner,  a  bold  and  hardy  race, 
who,  originally  followers  of  the  Lords  of  the  Isles,  had 
assumed  independence,  seized  upon  great  part  both  of  the 
Isle  of  Mull  and  the  still  more  valuable  Island  of  Hay, 
and  made  war  on  the  MacDonalds  with  various  success. 
There  is  a  story  belonging  to  this  clan,  which  I  may  tell 
you,  as  giving  another  striking  picture  of  the  manners  of 
the  Hebrideans. 

The  chief  of  the  clan,  MacLean  of  Duart  in  the  Isle 
of  Mull,  had  an  intrigue  with  a  beautiful  young  woman 
of  his  own  clan,  who  bore  a  son  to  him.  In  consequence 
of  the  child's  being,  by  some  accident,  born  in  a  barn,  he 
received  the  name  of  Allan-a-Sop,  or  Allan  of  the  Straw, 
by  which  he  »vas  distinguished  from  others  of  his  clan. 
A.S  his  father  and  mother  were  not  married,  Allan  was  of 
course  a  bastard,  or  natural  son,  and  had  no  inheritance 
to  look  for,  save  that  which  he  might  win  for  himself 


60  S'lORY    OF    ALLAN-A-SOP. 

But  the  beauty  of  the  boy's  mother  having  captivated 
a  man  of  rank  in  the  clan,  called  Mac-Lean  of  Torloisk, 
he  married  her,  and  took  her  to  reside  with  him  at  his 
castle  of  Torloisk,  situated  on  the  shores  of  the  Sound, 
or  small  strait  of  the  sea,  which  divides  the  smaller  island 
of  Ulva  from  that  of  Mull.  Allan-a-Sop  paid  his  mother 
frequent  visits  at  her  new  residence,  and  she  was  naturally 
glad  to  see  the  poor  boy,  both  from  affection,  and  on  ac- 
count of  his  personal  strength  and  beauty,  which  distin- 
guished him  above  other  youths  of  his  age.  But  she  was 
obliged  to  confer  marks  of  her  attachment  on  him  as 
privately  as  she  could,  for  Allan's  visits  were  by  no  means 
so  acceptable  to  her  husband  as  to  herself.  Indeed,  Tor- 
loisk liked  so  little  to  see  the  lad,  that  he  determined  to 
put  some  afFront  on  him,  which  should  prevent  his  return- 
ing to  the  castle  for  some  time.  An  opportunity  for  ex- 
ecuting his  purpose  soon  occurred. 

The  lady  one  morning,  looking  from  the  window,  saw 
her  son  coming  wandering  down  the  hill,  and  hastened  to 
put  a  girdle  cake  upon  the  fire,  that  he  might  have  hot 
bread  to  his  breakfast.  Something  called  her  out  of  the 
apartment  after  making  this  preparation,  and  her  husband 
entering  at  the  same  time,  saw  at  once  what  she  had  been 
about,  and  determined  to  give  the  boy  such  a  reception 
as  should  disgust  him  for  the  future.  He  snatched  the 
cake  from  the  girdle,  thrust  it  into  his  step-son's  hands, 
wbich  he  forcibly  closed  on  the  scalding  bread,  saying, 
"  Here,  Allan — here  is  a  cake  which  your  mother  has  got 
ready  for  your  breakfast."  Allan's  hands  were  severely 
burnt  ;  and,  being  a  sharp-witted  and  proud  boy,  he  re- 
sented this  mark  of  his  stepfather's  ill-will,  and  came  not 
again  to  Torloisk. 

At  this  time  the  western  seas  were  covered  with  the 
vessels  of  pirates,  who  not  unlike  the  Sea-kings  of  Den- 
mark at  an  early  period,  sometimes  settled  and  made  con- 
quests on  the  islands.  Allan-a-Sop  was  young,  strong 
and  brave  to  desperation.  He  entered  as  a  mariner  on 
board  of  one  of  these  ships,  and  in  process  of  time  ob- 
tained the  command,  first  of  one  galley,  then  of  a  small 


STORY    OF    ALLAN-A-SOP.  61 

flotilla,  with  which  he  sailed  round  the  seas  and  collected 
considerable  plunder,  until  his  name  became  both  feared 
and  famous.  At  length  he  proposed  to  himself  to  pay  a 
visit  to  his  mother,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  many  years  ; 
and  setting  sail  for  this  purpose,  he  anchored  one  morning 
in  the  Sound  of  Ulva,  and  in  front  of  the  house  of  Tor- 
loisk  His  mother  was  dead,  but  his  stepfather,  to  whom 
he  was  now  an  object  of  fear  as  he  had  been  formerly  ol 
aversion,  hastened  to  the  shore  to  receive  his  formidable 
son-in-law,  with  great  affectation  of  kindness  and  interest 
in  his  prosperity  ;  while  Allan-a-Sop,  who,  though  very 
rough  and  hasty,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  sullen  or 
vindictive,  seemed  to  take  this  kind  reception  in  good  part. 

The  crafty  old  man  succeeded  so  well,  as  he  thought, 
in  securing  Allan's  friendship,  and  obliterating  all  recol- 
lections of  the  former  affront  put  on  him,  that  he  began 
to  think  it  possible  to  employ  him  in  executing  his  private 
revenge  upon  MacKinnon  of  Ulva,  with  whom,  as  was 
usual  between  such  neighbours,  he  had  some  feud.  With 
this  purpose,  he  offered  what  he  called  the  following  good 
advice  to  his  son-in-law  :  "  My  dear  Allan,  you  have 
now  wandered  over  the  seas  long  enough ;  it  is  time  you 
should  have  some  footing  upon  land,  a  castle  to  protect 
yourself  in  winter,  a  village  and  cattle  for  your  men,  and 
a  harbour  to  lay  up  your  galleys.  Now,  here  is  the  island 
of  Ulva,  near  at  hand,  which  lies  ready  for  your  occupa- 
tion, and  it  will  cost  you  no  trouble,  save  that  of  putting 
to  death  the  present  proprietor,  the  Laird  of  MacKinnon, 
a  useless  old  carle,  who  has  cumbered  the  world  long 
enough." 

Allan-a-Sop  thanked  his  stepfather  for  so  happy  a  sug- 
gestion, which  he  declared  he  would  put  in  execution 
forthwith.  Accordingly,  setting  sail  the  next  morning,  he 
appeared  before  MacKinnon's  house  an  hour  before  noon. 
The  old  chief  ol  Ulva  was  much  alarmed  at  the  menacing 
apparition  of  so  many  galleys,  and  his  anxiety  was  not 
lessened  by  the  news,  that  they  were  commanded  by  the 
redoubted  Allan-a-Sop.  Having  no  effectual  means  ol 


62  STOItY    OF    ALLAN-A -SOI'. 

resistance,  MacKinnon,  who  was  a  man  of  shrewd  sense, 
saw  no  alternative  save  that  of  receiving  the  invaders, 
whatever  might  be  their  purpose,  with  all  outward  demon- 
strations of  joy  and  satisfaction.  He  caused  immediate 
preparations  to  be  made  for  a  banquet  as  splendid  as  cir- 
cumstances admitted,  hastened  down  to  the  shore  to  meet 
the  rover,  and  welcomed  him  to  Ulva  with  such  an  ap- 
pearance of  sincerity,  that  the  pirate  found  it  impossible 
to  pick  any  quarrel  which  might  afford  a  pretence  for 
executing  the  violent  purpose  which  he  had  been  led  to 
meditate. 

They  feasted  together  the  whole  day  ;  and,  in  the 
evening,  as  Allan-a-Sop  was  about  to  retire  to  his  ships, 
he  thanked  the  Laird  of  MacKinnon  for  his  entertainment, 
but  remarked,  with  a  sigh,  that  it  had  cost  him  very  dear. 
"  How  can  that  be,"  said  MacKinnon,  "  when  I  bestowed 
this  entertainment  upon  y»u  in  free  good-will  ?" — "  It  is 
true,  my  friend,"  replied  the  pirate,  "  but  then  it  has  quite 
disconcerted  the  purpose  for  which  I  came  hither  ;  which 
was  to  put  you  to  death,  my  good  friend,  and  seize  upon 
your  house  and  island,  and  so  settle  myself  in  the  world. 
It  would  have  been  very  convenient  this  island,  but  your 
friendly  reception  has  rendered  it  impossible  for  me  to 
execute  my  purpose  ;  so  that  I  must  be  a  wanderer  on 
the  seas  for  some  time  longer."  Whatever  MacKinnon 
felt  at  hearing  he  had  been  so  near  to  destruction,  he  took 
care  to  show  no  emotion  save  surprise,  and  replied  to  his 
visitor, — "  My  dear  Allan,  who  was  it  that  put  into  your 
mind  so  unkind  a  purpose  towards  your  old  friend  ?  for  I 
am  sure  it  never  arose  from  your  own  generous  nature. 
It  must  have  been  your  father-in-law,  old  Torloisk,  who 
made  such  an  indifferent  husband  to  your  mother,  and 
such  an  unfriendly  stepfather  to  you  when  you  were  a 
helpless  boy  ;  but  now,  when  he  sees  you  a  bold  and 
powerful  leader,  he  desires  to  make  a  quarrel  betwixt  you 
and  those  who  were  the  friends  of  your  youth.  If  you 
consider  this  matter  rightly,  Allan,  you  will  see  that  the 
estate  and  harbour  of  Torloisk  lie  as  conveniently  for  you 
as  those  of  Ulva,  and  that,  if  you  are  to  make  a  settlement 


DREADFUL    DEATH    BY    THIRST.  63 

by  force,  it  is  much  better  it  should  be  at  the  expense  01 
the  old  churl,  who  never  showed  you  kindness  or  counte- 
nance, than  at  that  of  a  friend  like  me,  who  always  loved 
and  honoured  you." 

Allan-a-Sop  was  struck  with  the  justice  of  this  reason- 
ing ;  and  the  old  offence  of  his  scalded  fingers  was  sud- 
denly recalled  to  his  mind.  "  It  is  very  true  what  you 
say,  MacKinnon,"  he  replied,  "  and,  besides,  I  have  not 
forgotten  what  a  hot  breakfast  my  father-in-law  treated 
me  to  one  morning.  Farewell  for  the  present ;  you  shall 
soon  hear  news  of  me  from  the  other  side  of  the  Sound.' 
Having  said  thus  much,  tire  pirate  got  on  board,  and  com- 
manding bis  men  to  unmoor  the  galleys,  sailed  back  to 
Torloisk,  and  prepared  to  land  in  arms.  His  father-in- 
law  hastened  to  meet  him,  in  expectation  to  hear  of  the 
death  of  his  enemy,  MacKinnon.  But  Allan  greeted  him 
in  a  very  different  manner  from  what  he  expected.  "  You 
hoary  old  traitor,"  he  said,  "  you  instigated  my  simple 
good-nature  to  murder  a  better  man  than  yourself.  But 
have  you  forgotten  how  you  scorched  my  fingers  twenty 
years  ago,  with  a  burning  cake  ?  The  day  is  come  that 
that  breakfast  must  be  paid  for."  So  saying,  he  dashed 
out  his  father-in-law's  brains  with  a  battle-axe,  took  pos- 
session of  his  castle  and  property,  and  established  there 
a  distinguished  branch  of  the  clan  of  MacLean. 

It  is  told  of  another  of  these  western  chiefs,  who  is 
said,  upon  the  whole,  to  have  been  a  kind  and  good- 
natured  man,  that  he  was  subjected  to  repeated  risk  and 
injury  by  the  treachery  of  an  ungrateful  nephew,  who 
attempted  to  surprise  his  castle,  in  order  to  put  his  uncle 
to  death,  and  obtain  for  himself  the  command  of  the  tribe. 
Bang  detected  on  the  first  occasion,  and  brought  before 
his  uncle  as  a  prisoner,  the  chief  dismissed  him  unharm- 
ed ;  with  a  warning,  however,  not  to  repeat  the  offence, 
since,  if  he  did  so,  he  would  cause  him  to  be  put  to  a  death 
so  fearful  that  all  Scotland  should  ring  with  it.  The 
wicked  young  man  persevered,  and  renewed  his  attempts 
against  his  uncle's  castle  and  life.  Falling  a  second  time 
into  th«  hands  of  the  offended  chieftain,  the  prisoner  had 


O'l  LOWLAND    SETTLERS    AT    STOKNOWAY 

reason  to  term  him  as  good  as  his  word.  He  was  con 
fined  in  the  pit,  or  dungeon  of  the  castle,  a  deep  vault,  lo 
which  there  was  no  access,  save  through  a  hole  in  the 
roof.  He  was  left  without  food,  till  his  appetite  grew 
voracious  ;  the  .more  so,  as  he  had  reason  to  apprehend 
that  it  was  intended  to  starve  him  to  death.  But  the  ven- 
geance of  his  uncle  was  of  a  more  refined  character. 
The  stone  which  covered  the  aperture  in  the  roof  was 
opened,  and  a  quantity  of  salted  beef  let  down  to  the 
prisoner,  who  devoured  it  eagerly.  When  he  had  glutted 
himself  with  this  food,  and  expected  to  be  supplied  with 
liquor,  to  quench  the  raging  thirst  which  the  diet  had  ex- 
cited, a  cup  was  lowered  down,  which,  when  he  eagerly 
grasped  it,  he  found  to  be  empty  !  They  then  rolled  the 
stone  on  the  opening  in  the  vault,  and  left  the  captive  to 
perish  by  thiist,  the  most  dreadful  of  all  deaths. 

Many  similar  stories  could  be  told  you  of  the  wild  wars 
of  the  islanders ;  but  these  may  suffice  at  present  to  give 
j  ou  some  idea  of  the  fierceness  of  their  manners,  the  low 
value  at  which  they  held  human  life,  and  the  manner  in 
which  wrongs  were  revenged,  and  property  acquired. 
They  seem  to  have  been  accounted  by  King  James  a  race 
whom  it  was  impossible  to  subdue,  conciliate,  or  improve 
by  civilization  ;  and  the  only  remedy  which  occurred  to 
him,  was  to  settle  Lowlanders  in  the  islands,  and  drive 
away  or  extirpate  the  people  by  whom  they  were  inhabit- 
ed. For  this  purpose,  the  king  authorized  an  association 
of  many  gentlemen  in  the  county  of  Fife,  then  the  wealth- 
iest and  most  civilized  part  of  Scotland,  who  undertook 
to  make  a  settlement  in  the  isles  of  Lewis  and  Harris. 
These  undertakers,  as  they  were  called,  levied  money, 
assembled  soldiers,  and  manned  a  fleet,  with  which  they 
landed  on  the  Lewis,  and  effected  a  settlement  at  Storno- 
way  in  that  country.  At  this  time  the  property  of  the 
Lewis  was  disputed  between  the  sons  of  Rory  MacLeod, 
the  last  lord,  who  had  two  families  by  separate  wives. 
The  undertakers  finding  the  natives  thus  quarrelling  among 
themselves,  had  little  difficulty  in  build 'ng  a  small  town 
and  fortifying  it  ;  and  their  enterprise  in  the  beginning 


MYSSACKKD   BY   TIIK  NATIVKS.  65 

assumed  a  promising  appearance.  But  the  Lend  of  Kin- 
tail,  chief  of  the  numerous  and  powerful  clan  of  Mac- 
Kenzie,  was  little  disposed  to  let  this  fair  island  fall  into 
the  possession  of  a  company  of  Lowland  adventurers. 
He  had  himself  some  views  of  obtaining  it  in  the  name  of 
Torquil  Connaldagh  MacLeod,  one  of  the  claimants,  who 
was  closely  connected  with  the  family  of  MacKenzie,  and 
disposed  to  act  as  his  powerful  flily  desired.  Thus  pri- 
vately encouraged,  the  islanders  united  themselves  against 
the  undertakers  ;  and,  after  a  war  of  various  fortune, 
attacked  their  camp  of  Slornoway,  took  it  by  storm,  burnt 
the  fort,  slew  many  of  them,  and  made  the  rest  prisoners. 
They  were  not  expelled,  you  may  be  sure,  without  blood- 
shed and  massacre.  Some  of  the  old  persons  still  alive 
in  the  Lewis,  talk  of  a  very  old  woman,  living  in  their 
youth,  who  used  to  say,  that  she  had  held  the  light  while 
her  countrymen  were  cutting  the  throats  of  the  adven- 
turers. 

A  lady,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  principal  gentlemen  in 
the  expedition,  fled  from  the  scene  of  violence  into  a  wild 
and  pathless  desert  of  rock  and  morass,  called  the  Forest 
of  Fannig.  In  this  wilderness  she  became  the  mother  of 
a  child.  A  Hebridean,  who  chanced  to  pass  on  one  of 
the  ponies  of  the  country,  saw  the  mother  and  infant  in 
the  act  of  perishing  with  cold,  and  being  struck  with  the 
misery  of  their  condition,  contrived  a  strange  manner  of 
preserving  them,  lie  killed  his  pony,  and  opening  its 
belly,  and  removing  the  entrails,  he  put  the  new  born  in- 
fant and  the  helpless  mother  into  the  inside  of  the  carcass 
to  have  the  advantage  of  the  warmth  which  this  strange 
and  shocking  receptacle  afforded.  In  this  manner,  witii 
or  without  assistance,  he  contrived  to  bear  them  to  some 
place  of  security,  where  the  lady  remained  till  she  could 
get  back  in  safety  to  her  own  country.  She  became, 
after  this  wonderful  escape,  the  wife  of  a  person  of  con- 
sequence and  influence  in  Edinburgh,  a.  Judge,  I  believe, 
of  the  Court  of  Session.  One  evening,  while  she  looked 
from  the  window  of  her  house  in  the  Canongate  just  as 

884 


66  \VESTEKN    ISLES    OFFKUMI)    TO    IIUNTLT. 

a  hpovy  storm  was  coming  on,  she  heard  a  man  in  the 
Highland  dress  say  to  another  with  whom  he  was  walking, 
"  This  would  be  a  rough  night  for  the  Forest  of  Failing." 
The  lady's  attention  was  immediately  attracted  by  the 
name  of  a  place  which  she  had  such  awful  reasons  for 
remembering,  and,  on  looking  attentively  at  the  man  who 
spoke,  she  recognized  her  preserver.  She  called  him  into 
the  house,  received  him  in  the  most  cordial  manner,  and 
finding  that  he  was  come  from  the  Western  Islands  on 
some  business  of  great  importance  to  his  family,  she  in- 
terested her  husband  in  his  favour,  by  whose  influence  it 
was  speedily  and  successfully  settled  ;  and  the  Hebridean, 
loaded  with  kindness  and  presents,  returned  to  his  native 
island,  with  reason  to  congratulate  himself  on  the  human- 
ity which  he  had  shown  in  so  singular  a  manner. 

After  the  surprise  of  their  fort,  and  the  massacre  of  the 
defenders,  the  Fife  gentlemen  tired  of  their  undertaking ; 
qnd  the  Lord  of  Kintail  had  the  whole  advantage  of  the 
dispute,  for  he  contrived  to  get  possession  of  the  Lewis 
for  himself,  and  transmitted  it  to  his  family,  with  whom  it 
still  remains. 

It  appears,  however,  that  King  James  did  not  utterly 
despair  of  improving  the  Hebrides,  by  means  of  coloniza- 
tion. It  was  supposed  that  the  powerful  Marquis  of  Hunt- 
ly  might  have  had  strength  to  acquire  the  property,  and 
wealth  enough  to  pay  the  Crown  something  for  the  grant. 
The  whole  archipelago  was  offered  to  him,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Skye  and  Lewis,  at  the  cheap  price  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  Scots,  or  about  800Z. ;  but  the  Marquis 
would  not  give  more  than  half  the  sum  demanded,  for 
what  he  justly  considered  as  a  permission  to  conquer  a 
sterile  region,  inhabited  by  a  warlike  race. 

Such  was  the  result  of  the  efforts  to  introduce  some 
civilization  into  these  islands.  In  the  next  chapter  we 
shall  show  that  the  improvement  of  the  Highlanders  on 
the  mainland  was  not  much  more  satisfactory. 


STORY    OF    DON  AID    OF    THE    HAMMER.  67 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Contempt  of  the  Highlanders  for  the  Arts  of  Peats— 
Story  of  Donald  of  the  Hammer — Execution  of  the 
Laird  of  Macintosh  by  order  of  the  Marchioness 
of  Huntly — Massacre  of  the  Farquharsons — Race  oj 
the  Trough — Execution  of  the  Earl  of  Orkney. 

THE  size  and  position  of  the  Highlands  of  Scotland 
rendered  them  much  less  susceptible  of  improvement  than 
the  Border  districts,  which,  far  less  extensive,  and  less 
difficult  of  access,  were  now  placed  between  two  civilized 
and  peaceful  countries,  instead  of  being  the  frontier  oi 
two  host.ile  lands. 

The  Highlanders,  on  tiie  contrary,  continued  the  same 
series  of  wars  among  themselves,  and  incursions  upon  their 
Lowland  neighbours,  which  had  distinguished  them  ever 
since  the  dawn  of  their  history.  Military  adventure,  in 
one  form  or  other,  was  their  delight  as  well  as  their  em- 
ployment, and  all  works  of  industry  were  considered  as 
unworthy  the  dignity  of  a  mountaineer.  Even  the  neces- 
sary task  of  raising  a  scanty  crop  of  barley  was  assigned 
to  the  aged,  and  to  the  women  and  children.  The  men 
minded  nothing  but  hunting  and  war.  I  will  give  you  an 
account  of  a  Highland  chieftain,  in  character  and  practice 
not  very  different  from  that  of  Allan-a-Sop,  the  Hebri- 
dean. 

The  Stewarts,  who  inhabited  the  district  of  Appin  in 
the  West  Highlands,  were  a  numerous  and  warlike  clan. 
Appin  is  the  title  of  the  chief  of  the  clan.  The  second 
branch  of  the  family  was  that  of  Invernahyle.  The 
founder,  a  second  son  of  the  House  of  Appin,  was  called 
by  the  uncommon  epithet  of  Saoileach,  or  the  Peaceful 
One  of  his  neighbours  was  the  Lord  of  Dunstaffnage, 
called  Cailen  Unine,  or  Green  Colin,  from  the  green  coU 


68  STOKY    OF 

our  which  predominated  in  his  tartans.  This  Grj^n  Colin 
surprised  the  peaceful  Laird  of  Invernahyle,  assassinated 
liiin,  burnt  his  house,  and  destroyed  his  whole  family,  ex- 
cepting an  infant  at  the  breast.  This  infant  did  not  owe 
its  safety  to  the  mercy  of  Green  Colin,  but  to  the  activity 
and  presence  of  mind  of  his  nurse.  Finding  she  could 
not  escape  the  pursuit  of  that  chiefs  attendants,  the  faith- 
ful nurse  determined  to  provide  for  the  safety  of  her 
foster-child,  whose  life  she  knew  was  aimed  at,  in  the  only 
manner  which  remained.  She  therefore  hid  the  infant  in 
a  small  fissure,  or  cave,  of  a  rock,  and  as  the  only  means 
she  had  of  supplying  him  with  subsistence,  hung  by  a 
siring  round  his  neck  a  large  piece  of  lard.  The  poor 
woman  had  only  time  to  get  a  little  way  from  the  place 
where  she  had  concealed  her  charge,  when  she  was  made 
prisoner  by  the  pursuers.  As  she  denied  any  knowledge 
where  the  child  was,  they  dismissed  her  as  a  person  of  no 
consequence,  but  not  until  they  had  kept  her  two  or  three 
days  in  close  confinement,  menacing  her  with  death  unless 
she  would  discover  what  she  had  done  with  the  infant. 

When  she  found  herself  at  liberty  and  unobserved,  she 
went  to  the  hole  in  which  she  had  concealed  her  charge, 
with  little  hope  save  of  finding  such  relics  as  wolves,  wild 
cats,  or  birds  of  prey,  might  have  left  after  feasting  upon 
its  flesh,  but  still  with  the  pious  wish  to  consign  the  re- 
mains of  her  davit,  or  foster-child,  to  some  place  of  Chris- 
lian  burial.  But  her  joy  and  surprise  were  extreme  to 
find  the  child  still  alive  and  well,  having  lived  during  her 
absence  by  sucking  the  lard,  which  it  had  reduced  to  a 
very  small  morsel,  scarce  larger  than  a  hazel  nut.  The 
delighted  nurse  made  all  haste  to  escape  with  her  charge 
to  the  neighbour'ng  district  of  Moidart,  of  which  she  was 
a  native,  being  the  wife  of  the  smith  of  the  clan  of  Mac- 
donald,  to  whom  that  country  belonged  ;  the  mother  of 
the  infant  thus  miraculously  rescued  had  also  been  a 
daughter  of  this  tribe. 

To  ensure  the  safety  of  her  foster-child,  the  nurse  per- 
suaded her  husDand  to  bring  it  up  as  their  own  son.  The 
smith,  you  must  remark,  of  a  Highland  tribe,  was  a  person 


DONALD    OF    TDK     II  A  MM  Kit.  69 

of  considerable  consequence.  His  skill  in  forging  armour 
and  weapons  was  usually  united  with  dexterity  in  using 
them,  and  with  the  strength  of  body  which  his  profession 
required.  If  I  recollect  right,  the  smith  usually  ranked 
as  third  officer  in  the  chiefs  household.  The  young 
Donald  Stewart,  as  he  grew  up,  was  distinguished  for 
great  personal  strength.  He  became  skilful  in  his  foster- 
father's  art  and  so  powerful,  that  he  could,  it  is  said, 
wield  two  fore-hammers,  one  in  each  hand,  for  hours  to- 
gether. From  this  circumstance,  he  gained  the  name  ol 
Donuil  nan  Ord,  that  is  Donald  of  the  Hammer,  by 
which  he  was  all  his  life  distinguished. 

When  he  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one,  Donald's  fos- 
ter-father, the  smith,  observing  that  his  courage  and  en- 
terprise equalled  his  personal  strength,  thought  tit  to  dis- 
cover to  him  the  secret  of  his  birth,  the  injuries  which  he 
had  received  from  Green  Colin  of  Dunstaffnage,  and  the 
pretensions  which  he  had  to  the  property  of  Imernahyle, 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  man  who  had  slain  his  father, 
and  usurped  his  inheritance.  He  concluded  his  discovery 
by  presenting  to  his  beloved  foster-child  his  own  six  sons 
to  be  his  followers  and  defenders  for  life  and  death,  and 
his  assistants  in  the  recovery  of  his  patrimony. 

Law  of  every  description  was  unknown  in  the  High- 
lands. Young  Donald  proceeded  in  his  enterprise  by 
hostile  measures.  In  addition  to  his  six  foster  brethren, 
he  got  some  assistance  from  his  mother's  kindred,  and 
levied  among  the  old  adherents  of  his  father,  and  his 
kinsmen  of  the  house  of  Appin,  such  additional  force, 
that  he  was  able  to  give  battle  to  Green  Colin,  whom 
he  defeated  and  slew,  regaining  at  the  same  time  his 
father's  h  use  and  estate  of  Invernahyle.  This  success 
had  its  dangers  ;  for  it  placed  the  young  chief  in  feud 
with  all  the  families  of  the  powerful  clan  of  Campbell,  to 
which  the  slain  Dunstaffhage  belonged  by  alliance  at  least 
for  Green  Colin  and  his  ancestors  had  assumed  the  name, 
and  placed  themselves  under  the  banner,  of  this  fortnida- 
olc  clan,  although  originally  they  were  chieftains  of  a 
difi'erent  and  independent  race.  The  feud  became  more 


70  STOHY    OF 

deadly,  when,  not  satisfied  with  revenging  himself  on  the 
immediate  authors  of  his  early  misfortune,  Donald  made 
inroads  on  the  Campbells  in  their  own  dominions  ;  in 
evidence  of  which  his  historian  quotes  a  verse  to  this 
purpose-— 

Donald  of  the  Smithy,  the  Son  of  the  Hammer, 

Fill'd  the  banks  of  Lochawe  with  mourning  and  clamour. 

At  length  the  powerful  Earl  of  Argyle  resented  the  inju- 
ries which  were  offered  to  his  clansmen  and  kindred. 
The  Stewarts  of  Appin  refused  to  support  their  kinsman 
against  an  enemy  so  formidable,  and  insisted  that  he  should 
seek  for  peace  with  the  Earl.  So  that  Donald,  left  to 
himself,  and  sensible  that  he  was  unable  to  withstand  the 
force  which  might  be  brought  against  him  by  this  mighty 
chief,  endeavoured  to  propitiate  his  favour  by  placing 
himself  in  his  hands. 

He  went,  accordingly,  with  only  a  single  attendant  to- 
wards Inverary,  the  castle  of  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  who 
met  him  at  some  distance  in  the  open  fields.  Donald  of 
the  Hammer  showed  on  this  occasion  that  it  was  not  fear 
which  had  induced  him  to  this  step.  He  was  a  man  of 
ready  wit  and  a  poet,  which  was  an  accomplishment  high 
in  the  estimation  of  the  Highlanders.  He  opened  the 
conference  with  an  extempore  verse,  which  intimated  a 
sort  of  defiance,  rather  like  the  language  of  a  man  that 
cared  not  what  might  befall  him,  than  one  who  craved 
mercy  or  asked  forgiveness. 

Sou  of  dark  Colin,  thou  dangerous  Earl, 
Small  is  the  boon  that  I  crave  at  thy  hand  ; 

Enough  if  in  safety  from  bondage   and  peril, 
Thou  iett'st  me  return  to  my  kindred  and  laud. 

The  Earl  was  too  generous  to  avail  himself  of  the  ad- 
vantage which  Invernahyle's  confidence  had  afforded  him. 
but  he  could  not  abstain  from  maintaining  the  conversation 
thus  begun,  in  a  gibing  tone.  Donuil  nan  Ord  was  harsh 
featured,  and  had  a  custom,  allied  to  his  mode  of  educa- 
tion, and  the  haughtiness  of  his  character,  of  throwing 


DONALD   OF    THE    HAMMER.  71 

back  his  head,  and  laughing  loudly  with  his  mouth  wide 
open.  In  ridicule  of  this  peculiarity,  Argyle,  or  one  of  his 
attendants,  pointed  out  to  his  observation,  a  rock  in  the 
neighbourhood,  which  bore  a  singular  resemblance  to  a  hu- 
man face,  with  a  large  mouth  much  thrown  back,  and  open 
as  if  laughing  a  horse  laugh.  "  Do  you  see  yonder  crag  ?" 
they  said  to  Donald  of  the  Hammer,  "  it  is  called  Gaire 
Ciranda,  or  the  Ugly  Laugh."  Donald  felt  the  intended 
gibe,  and  as  Argyle's  lady  was  a  plain  and  haughty  woman, 
he  replied,  without  hesitation,  in  a  verse  like  the  following 

Ugly  the  sneer  of  yon  cliff  of  the  hill, 
Nature  has  stamp'd  the  grim  laugh  on  the  place  : 

Seek  lor  a  grimmer  and  uglier  still, 

You  will  find  it  at  home  in  your  countess's  face. 

Argyle  took  the  raillery  of  Donald  in  good  part,  but 
would  not  make  peace  with  him,  until  he  agreed  to  make 
two  creaghs,  or  inroads,  one  upon  Moidart,  and  one  upon 
Athole.  It  seems  probable  that  the  purpose  of  Argyle 
was  to  engage  his  troublesome  neighbour  in  a  feud  with 
other  clans  to  whom  he  bore  no  good-will  ;  for  whether 
he  of  the  Hammer  fell  or  was  successful,  the  Earl,  in 
either  event,  would  gain  a  certain  advantage.  Donald 
accepted  peace  with  the  Campbells  on  these  terms. 

On  his  return  home,  Donald  communicated  to  Mac- 
Donald  of  Moidart  the  engagement  he  had  come  under  ; 
and  that  chieftain,  his  mother's  kinsman  and  ally,  con- 
certed that  Invernahyle  and  his  band  should  plunder  cer- 
tain villages  in  Moidart,  the  inhabitants  of  which  had 
offended  him,  and  on  whom  he  desired  chastisement 
should  be  inflicted.  The  incursion  of  Donald  the  Ham- 
merer punished  them  to  some  purpose,  and  so  far  he  ful- 
filled his  engagement  to  Argyle,  without  making  an  enemy 
of  his  own  kinsman.  With  the  Athole  men,  as  more 
distant  and  unconnected  with  him,  Donald  stood  on  less 
ceremony,  and  made  more  than  one  successful  creagh 
upon  them.  His  name  was  now  established  as  one  of 
the  most  formidable  marauders  known  in  the  Highlands 
and  a  very  bloody  action  which  he  sustained  against  the 


72  STOKY    OK 

family  of  the   Grahams  of  Monteith,   made  him   more 
dreaded. 

The  Earls  of  Monteith,  you  must  know,  had  a  castle 
situated  upon  an  island  in  the  lake,  or  loch,  as  it  is  called, 
of  the  same  name.  But  though  this  residence,  which 
occupied  almost  the  whole  of  the  islet  upon  which  its 
ruins  still  exist,  was  a  strong  and  safe  place  of  abode,  and 
adapted  accordingly  to  such  perilous  times,  it  had  this 
inconvenience*  that  the  stables,  cow-houses,  poultry-yard, 
and  other  domestic  offices,  were  necessarily  separated 
from  the  castle,  and  situated  on  the  mainland,  as  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  be  constantly  transporting  the 
animals  belonging  to  the  establishment  to  and  fro  from 
the  shore  to  the  island.  These  offices,  therefore,  were 
constructed  on  the  banks  of  the  lake,  and  in  some  sort 
defenceless. 

It  happened  on  one  occasion  that  there  was  to  be  a 
great  entertainment  in  the  fcastle,  and  a  number  of  the 
Grahams  were  assembled.  The  occasion,  it  is  said,  was 
a  marriage  in  the  family.  To  prepare  for  this  feast,  much 
provision  was  got  ready,  and  in  particular  a  great  deal  01 
poultry  had  been  collected.  While  the  feast  was  pre- 
paring, an  unhappy  chance  brought  Donald  of  the  Ham- 
mer to  the  side  of  the  lake,  returning  at  the  head  of  a 
band  of  hungry  followers,  whom  he  was  conducting  home- 
wards to  the  West  Highlands,  after  some  of  his  usual 
excursions  into  Stirlingshire.  Seeing  so  much  good  vic- 
tuals ready,  and  being  possessed  of  an  excellent  appetite, 
the  western  Highlanders  neither  asked  questions,  or 
waited  for  an  invitation,  but  devoured  all  the  provisions 
that  had  been  prepared  for  the  Grahams,  and  then  went 
on  their  way  rejoicing,  through  the  difficult  and  danger- 
ous path  which  leads  from  the  banks  of  the  loch  of  Mon- 
leith,  through  the  mountains,  to  the  side  of  Loch  Katriqe. 
7'he  Grahams  were  filled  with  the  highest  indignation. 
Nothing  in  those  fierce  times  was  so  contemptible  as  an 
individual  who  would  suffer  himself  to  be  plundered 
without  exacting  satisfaction  and  revenge,  and  the  loss  of 
their  dinner  probably  aggravated  their  sense  of  the  insult 


I10NALD    OF    THE    HAMMER.  73 

The  company  who  were  assembled  at  th<j  Castle  of 
Monteith,  headed  by  the  Earl  himself,  hastily  took  to 
their  boats,  and,  disembarking  on  the  northern  side  of  the 
lake,  pursued  with  all  speed  the  marauders  and  their 
leader.  They  came  up  with  Donald's  party  in  the  gorge 
of  a  pass,  near  a  rock,  called  Craig-Vad,  or  the  Wolf's 
Cliff.  Here  the  Grahams  called,  with  loud  insults,  on 
the  Appin  men  to  stand,  and  one  of  them,  in  allusion  to 
the  execution  which  had  been  done  amongst  the  poultry, 
exclaimed  in  verse — 

They're  brave  gallants,  these  Appin  men, 
To  twist  the  throat  of  cock  and  hen  ! 

Donald  instantly  replied  to  the  reproach — 

And  if  we  be  of  Appin's  line, 
We'll  twist  a  goose's  neck  in  thine. 

So  saying,  he  shot  the  unlucky  scoffer  with  an  arrow. 
The  battle  then  began,  and  was  continued  with  much  fury 
till  night  came.  The  Earl  of  Monteith  and  many  of  his 
noble  kinsmen  fell,  while  Donald,  favoured  by  darkness, 
escaped  with  a  single  attendant.  The  Grahams  obtained 
from  the  cause  of  quarrel  the  nickname  of  Gramoch  an 
Garrigh,  or  Grahams  of  the  Hens  ;  although  they  cer- 
tainly lost  no  honour  in  the  encounter,  having  fought  like 
game-cocks. 

Donald  of  the  Hammer  was  twice  married.  His  se- 
cond marriage  was  highly  displeasing  to  his  eldest  son, 
whom  he  had  by  his  first  wife.  This  young  man,  whose 
name  was  Duncan,  seems  to  have  partaken  rather  of  the 
disposition  of  his  grandfather,  Alister  Saoileach,  or  the 
Peaceful,  than  of  the  turbulent  spirit  of  his  father  the 
Hammerer.  He  quitted  the  family  mansion  in  displea- 
sure, and  passed  to  a  farm  called  Inverfalla,  which  his 
father  had  bestowed  upon  his  nurse  in  reward  for  her 
eminent  services.  Duncan  lived  with  this  valued  con- 
nexion of  the  family,  who  was  now  in  the  extremity  of 
old  age,  and  amused  himself  with  attempting  to  improve 
Che  cultivation  of  the  farm  ;  a  task  which  not  only  was 
4  VOL.  i.  2d  SEK. 


74  STOU\  OP 

considered  as  far  below  the  dignity  of  a  Highland  gen- 
tleman, but  even  regarded  as  the  last  degree  of  degrada- 
tion. 

The  idea  of  his  son's  occupying  himself  with  agricul- 
tural operations  struck  so  much  shame  and  anger  into  the 
heart  of  Donald  the  Hammerer,  that  his  resentment 
against  him  became  ungovernable.  At  length,  as  he 
walked  by  his  own  side  of  the  river,  and  looked  towards 
Inverfalla,  he  saw,  to  his  extreme  displeasure,  a  number 
of  men  employed  in  digging  and  levelling  the  soil  for 
some  intended  crop.  Soon  after,  he  had  the  additional 
mortification  to  see  his  son  come  out  and  mingle  with  "the 
workmen,  as  if  giving  them  directions  ;  and,  finally,  be- 
held him  take  the  spade  out  of  an  awkward  fellow's  hand, 
and  dig  a  little  himself,  to  show  him  how  to  use  it.  This 
last  act  of  degeneracy  drove  the  Hammerer  frantic ;  he 
seized  a  curragh,  or  boat  covered  with  hides,  which  was 
near,  jumped  into  it  and  pushed  across  the  stream,  with 
the  determination  of  destroying  the  son,  who  had,  in  his 
opinion,  brought  such  unutterable  disgrace  upon  his  fam- 
ily. The  poor  agriculturist,  seeing  his  father  approach 
in  such  haste,  and  having  a  shrewd  guess  of  the  nature 
of  his  paternal  intentions,  fled  into  the  house  and  hid 
himself.  Donald  followed  with  his  drawn  weapon  ;  but, 
deceived  by  passion  and  darkness,  he  plunged  his  sword 
into  the  body  of  one  whom  he  saw  lying  on  the  bed- 
clothes. Instead  of  his  son,  for  whom  the  blow  was  in- 
tended, it  lighted  on  the  old  foster-mother,  to  whom  he 
owed  his  life  in  infancy  and  education  in  youth,  and  slew 
her  on  the  spot.  After  this  misfortune,  Donald  became 
deeply  affected  with  remorse  ;  and,  giving  up  all  his  es- 
tates to  his  children,  he  retired  to  the  Abbey  of  Saint 
Columbus,  in  lona,  and  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days 
as  a  monk. 

It  may  easily  be  believed,  that  there  was  little  peace 
and  quiet  in  a  country  abounding  with  such  men  as  the 
Hammerer,  who  thought  the  practice  of  honest  industry 
on  the  part  of  a  gentleman  was  an  act  if  degeneracy, 
for  which  nothing  short  of  death  was  an  adequate  pun- 


DONALD    OF    THE    HAMMER.  75 

ishment  ;  so  that  the  disorderly  state  of  the  H'ghlands 
was  little  short  of  that  of  the  Isles.  Still,  however,  many 
of  the  principal  chiefs  attended  occasionally  at  the  court 
of  Scotland  ;  others  were  frequently  obliged  to  send  theif 
sons  to  be  educated  there,  who  were  retained  as  hostages 
for  the  peaceful  behaviour  of  the  clan  ;  so  that  by  de- 
grees they  came  to  improve  with  the  increasing  civiliza- 
tion of  the  times. 

The  authority  also  of  the  great  nobles,  who  held  es- 
tates in  or  adjacent  to  the  Highlands,  was  a  means,  though 
a  rough  one,  of  making  the  district  over  which  they  ex- 
ercised their  power,  submit,  in  a  certain  degree,  to  the 
occasional  influence  of  the  laws.  It  is  true,  that  the 
great  Earls  of  Huntly,  Argyle,  Sutherland,  and  other 
nobles,  did  not  enforce  the  Lowland  institutions  upon 
their  Highland  vassals  out  of  mere  zeal  for  their  civiliza- 
tion, but  rather  because,  by  taking  care  to  secure  the 
power  of  the  sovereign  and  the  laws  on  their  own  side, 
they  could  make  the  infraction  of  them  by  the  smaller 
independent  chiefs  the  pretext  for  breaking  down  entire 
clans,  and  binding  them  to  their  own  authority. 

I  will  give  you  an  example  of  the  manner  in  which  a 
noble  lady  chastised  a  Highland  chief  in  the  reign  of 
James  the  Sixth.  The  Head  of  the  House  of  Gordon, 
then  Marquis  of  Huntly,  was  by  far  the  most  powerful 
lord  in  the  northern  counties,  and  exercised  great  influ- 
ence over  the  Highland  clans  who  inhabited  the  moun- 
tains of  Badenoch,  which  lay  behind  his  extensive  do- 
mains. One  of  the  most  ancient  is  that  of  Macintosh,  a 
word  which  means  Child  of  the  Thane,  as  they  boast 
their  descent  from  MacDuff,  the  celebrated  Thane  of 
Fife.  This  haughty  race  having  fallen  at  variance  with 
the  Gordons,  William  Macintosh,  their  chief,  carried  his 
enmity  to  so  great  a  pitch,  as  to  surprise  and  burn  the 
Castle  of  Atichindown,  belonging  to  the  Gordon  family. 
The  Marquis  of  Huntly  vowed  the  severest  vengeance. 
He  moved  against  the  Macintoshes  with  his  own  chivalry  ; 
nnd  he  let  loose  upon  the  devoted  tribe,  all  such  neigh- 
bouring clans  aj  would  do  anything,  as  the  old  phrase 


76  KXKCUTION    OF    THE 

was,  for  his  love  or  for  his  fear.  Macintosh,  after  a  shor* 
struggle,  found  himself  unequal  to  sustain  ihe  conflict, 
and  saw  that  he  must  either  behold  his  clan  totally  exter- 
minated, or  contrive  some  mode  of  pacifying  Huntly's 
resentment.  Of  the  last  he  saw  no  chance,  save  by  sur 
rendering  himself  into  the  power  of  the  Marquis,  and 
thus  personally  atoning  for  the  offence  which  he  had  com 
mined.  To  perform  this  act  of  generous  devotion  with 
as  much  chance  of  safety  as  possible,  he  chose  a  time 
when  the  Marquis  himself  was  absent,  and  asking  for  the 
lady,  whom  he  judged  likely  to  prove  less  inexorable 
than  her  husband,  he  presented  himself  as  the  unhappy 
Laird  of  Macintosh,  who  came  to  deliver  himself  up  to 
the  Gordon,  to  answer  for  his  burning  of  Auchindown, 
and  only  desired  that  Huntly  would  spare  his  clan.  The 
Marchioness,  a  stern  and  haughty  woman,  had  shared 
deeply  in  her  husband's  resentment.  She  regarded  Mac- 
intosh with  a  stern  eye,  as  the  hawk  or  eagle  contem- 
plates the  prey  within  its  clutch,  and  having  spoken  a 
word  aside  tt>  her  attendants,  replied  to  the  suppliant 
chief  in  this  manner  : — "  Macintosh,  you  have  offended 
the  Gordon  so  deeply,  that  Huntly  has  sworn  by  his  fath- 
er's soul,  that  he  will  never  pardon  you,  till  he  has  brought 
your  neck  to  the  block." — "  I  will  stoop  even  to  that  hu- 
miliation, to  secure  the  safety  of  my  father's  house," 
said  Macintosh.  And  as  this  interview  passed  in  the 
kitchen  of  the  Castle  at  Bog  of  Gicht,  he  undid  the  collar 
of  his  doublet,  and  kneeling  down  before  the  huge  block 
on  which,  in  the  rude  hospitality  of  the  time,  the  slain 
bullocks  and  sheep  were  broken  up  for  use,  he  laid  his 
neck  upon  it,  expecting,  doubtless,  that  the  lady  would 
be  satisfied  with  this  token  of  unreserved  submission. 
But  the  inexorable  Marchioness  made  a  sign  to  the  cook, 
who  stepped  forward  with  his  hatchet  raised,  and  struck 
Macintosh's  head  from  his  body. 

Another  story,  and  I  will  change  the  subject.  It  is 
also  of  th 3  family  of  Gordon  ;  not  that  they  were  by  any 
mean?  mere  hard-hearted  than  other  Scottish  barons,  who 
Lad  feudt  with  the  Highlanders,  but  because  it  is  the 


LAIRD    OF    MACINTOSH  77 

readiest  which  occurs  to  my  recollection.  The  Far« 
qtiharsons  of  Dee  side,  a  bold  and  warlike  people,  inhab- 
'ting  the  dales  of  Brae-mar,  had  taken  offence  at,  and 
slain,  a  gentleman  of  consequence,  named  Gordon  of 
Brackley.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly  summoned  his  forces, 
to  take  a  bloody  vengeance  for  the  death  of  a  Gordon  ; 
and  that  none  of  the  guilty  tribe  might  escape,  commu- 
nicated with  the  Laird  of  Grant,  a  very  powerful  chief, 
who  was  an  ally  of  Huntly,  and  a  relation,  I  believe,  to 
the  slain  Baron  of  Brackley.  They  agreed,  that,  on  a 
day  appointed,  Grant,  with  his  clan  in  arms,  should  occu- 
py the  upper  end  of  the  vale  of  Dee,  while  the  Gordons 
should  ascend  the  river  from  beneath,  each  party  killing, 
burning,  and  destroying,  without  mercy,  whatever  and 
whomsoever  they  found  before  them.  A  terrible  massa- 
cre was  made  among  the  Farquharsons,  taken  at  una- 
wares, and  placed  betwixt  two  enemies.  Almost  all  the 
men  and  women  of  the  race  were  slain,  and  when  the 
day  was  done,  Huntly  found  himself  encumbered  with 
about  two  hundred  orphan  children,  whose  parents  had 
been  killed.  What  beca.i.e  ./  them,  you  shall  presently 
hear. 

About  a  year  after  this  foray,  the  Laird  of  Grant 
chanced  to  dine  at  the  Marquis's  castle.  He  was,  ot 
course,  received  with  kindness,  and  entertained  with 
magnificence.  After  dinner  was  over,  Huntly  said  to  his 
guest,  that  he  would  show  him  some  rare  sport.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  conducted  Grant  to  a  balcony,  which,  as 
was  frequent  in  old  mansions,  overlooked  the  kitchen, 
perhaps  to  permit  the  lady  to  give  an  occasional  eye  to 
the  operations  there.  The  numerous  servants  of  the 
Marquis  and  his  visiters  had  already  dined,  and  Grant 
beheld  all  the  remains  of  the  victuals  flung  at  random 
into  a  large  trough,  like  that  out  of  which  swine  feed. 
While  Grant  was  wondering  what  this  could  mean,  the 
master  cook  gave  a  signal  with  his  silver  whistle  ;  on 
which  a  hatch,  like  that  of  a  dog-kennel,  was  raised,  and 
there  rushed  into  the  kitchen,  some  shrieking,  some  shouJ 


78  KACE    OF    THE    TROUGH. 

ing,  some  yelling — not  a  pack  of  hounds,  which,  in  num 
her,  noise,  and  tumult,  they  greatly  resembled,  but  a  hugn 
mob  of  children,  half  naked,  and  totally  \\ild  in  their 
manners,  who  threw  themselves  on  the  contents  of  the 
trough,  and  fought,  struggled,  and  clamoured,  each  to  get 
the  largest  share.  Grant  was  a  man  of  humility,  and 
did  not  see  in  that  degrading  scene  all  the  amusement 
which  his  noble  host  had  intended  to  afford  him.  "  In 
the  name  of  Heaven,"  he  said,  "  who  are  these  unfor-. 
tunate  creatures  that  are  fed  like  so  many  pigs?" — "  They 
are  the  children  of  those  Farquharsons  whom  we  slew 
last  year  on  Dee  side,"  answered  Huntly.  The  Laird 
felt  more  shocked  than  it  would  have  been  prudent  or 
polite  to  express.  "  My  lord,"  he  said,  "  my  sword 
helped  to  make  these  poor  children  orphans,  and  it  is  not 
fair  that  your  lordship  should  be  burdened  with  all  the 
expense  of  maintaining  them.  You  have  supported  them 
for  a  year  and  day — -allow  me  now  to  take  them  to  Cas- 
tle-Grant, and  keep  them  for  the  same  time  at  my  cost." 
Huntly  was  tired  of  the  joke  of  the  pig-trough,  and  wil- 
lingly consented  to  have  the  undisciplined  rabble  of  chil- 
dren taken  off  his  hands.  He  troubled  himself  no  more 
about  them  ;  and  the  Laird  of  Grant,  carrying  them  to 
his  castle,  had  them  dispersed  among  his  clan,  and  brought 
up  decently,  giving  them  his  own  name  of  Grant  ;  but  it 
is  said  their  descendants  are  still  called  the  Race  of  the 
Trough,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  families  of  the  tribe 
into  which  they  were  adopted. 

These  are  instances  of  the  severe  authority  exercised 
by  the  great  barons  over  their  Highland  neighbours  and 
vassals.  Still  that  authority  produced  a  regard  to  the 
laws,  which  they  would  not  otherwise  have  received 
These  mighty  lords,  though  possessed  of  great  power  ih 
their  jurisdictions,  never  affected  entire  independence,  as 
had  been  done  by  the  old  Lords  of  the  Isles,  who  made 
peace  and  war  with  England,  without  the  consent  of  the 
King  of  Scotland  ;  whereas,  Argyle,  Huntly,  and  others 
always  used  at  least  the  pretext  of  the  king's  name  and 
authority,  and  were,  from  habit  an .  education,  less  apt 


EXECUTION  OF  THE  EARL  OF  ORKNEY.     79 

to  practise  wild  stretches  of  arbitrary  power  than  the  na- 
tive chiefs  of  the  Highlands.  In  proportion,  therefore, 
as  the  influence  of  the  nobles  increased,  the  country  ap- 
proached more  nearly  to  civilization. 

It  must  not  here  be  forgotten,  that  the  increase  of  power 
acquired  by  the  sovereign,  had  been  felt  severely  by  one 
of  his  great  feudal  lords,  for  exercising  violence  and  op- 
pression, even  in  the  most  distant  extremity  of  the  em- 
pire. The  Earl  of  Orkney,  descended  from  a  natural 
son  of  James  V.,  and  of  course  a  cousin-german  of  the 
reigning  monarch,  had  indulged  himself  in  extravagant 
excesses  of  arbitrary  authority  amongst  the  wild  recesses 
of  the  Orkney  and  Zetland  islands.  He  had  also,  it  was 
alleged,  shown  some  token  of  a  wish  to  assume  sovereign 
power,  and  had  caused  his  natural  son  to  defend  the 
Castle  of  Kirkwall.  by  force  of  arms,  against  the  King's 
troops.  For  these  offences  the  Earl  was  tried  and  exe- 
cuted at  Edinburgh  ;  and  his  punishment  struck  such 
terror  among  the  aristocracy,  as  made  even  those  preat 
lords,  whose  power  lay  in  the  most  distant  and  inaccessi- 
ble places  of  Scotland,  disposed  to  be  amenable  to  the 
royal  authority. 

Having  thus  discussed  the  changes  effected  bv  the 
union  of  tie  crowns  on  the  Borders,  Highlands  nnd 
Isles,  it  re  nains  to  notice  the  effects  produced  in  the 
Lowlands,  or  more  civilized  parts  of  the  kingdom. 


80  SCOTSMEN    IN    FOREIGN    SEUV1CE. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

Injurious  effects  to  Scotland  of  the  Removal  of  the  Court 
to  London — Numerous  Scotsmen  employed  in  Foreign 
Military  Service — and  as  Travelling  Merchants,  or 
Packmen,  in  Germany — Exertions  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Clergy  to  put  an  end  to  Family  Feuds,  and  to 
extend  Education — Establishment,  by  their  means,  oj 
Parochial  Schools — James  VlSs  Visit  to  Scotland  in 
1617 — his  Death — his  Children. 

The  Scottish  people  were  soon  made  sensible,  that  il 
their  courtiers  and  great  men  made  fortunes  by  King 
James's  favour,  the  nation  at  large  was  not  enriched  by 
the  union  of  the  crowns.  Edinburgh  was  no  longer  the 
residence  of  a  Court,  whose  expenditure,  though  very 
moderate,  was  diffused  among  her  merchants  and  citizens, 
and  was  so  far  of  importance.  The  sons  of  the  gentry 
and  better  classes,  whose  sole  trade  had  been  war  and 
battle,  were  deprived  of  employment  by  the  general 
peace  with  England,  and  the  nation  was  likely  to  feel  all 
the  distress  arising  from  an  excess  of  population.  The 
wars  on  the  Continent  afforded  a  resource  peculiarly  fit- 
ted to  the  genius  of  the  Scots,  who  have  always  had  a 
disposition  for  visiting  foreign  parts.  The  celebrated 
Thirty  Years'  War,  as  it  was  called,  was  now  raging  in 
Germany,  and  a  large  national  brigade  of  Scots  were 
engaged  in  the  service  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  o* 
Sweden,  one  of  the  most  successful  generals  of  the  age. 
Their  total  numbers  may  be  guessed  from  those  of  the 
superior  officers,  which  amounted  to  thirty-four  colonels, 
and  fifty  lieutenant-colonels.  The  similarity  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Scots  with  that  of  the  Swedes,  and  some 
congenial  resemblances  betwixt  the  two  nations,  as  well 
BS  the  high  fame  of  Gustavus,  made  most  of  the  Scots 


SCOTSMEN     IN    FOREIGN    SERVICE.  81 

prefer  the  service  of  Sweden  ;  but  there  were  others 
who  went  into  that  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  of  France, 
of  the  Italian  States, — in  short,  they  were  dispersed  as 
soldiers  throughout  all  Europe.  It  was  not  uncommon, 
when  a  party  of  Scots  were  mounting  a  breach,  for  them 
to  hear  some  of  the  defenders  call  out  in  the  Scottish 
language,  "  Come  on,  gentlemen  ;  this  is  not  like  gallant- 
ing it  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh,"  and  thus  learn  that 
they  were  opposed  to  some  of  their  countrymen  engaged 
on  the  opposite  side.  The  taste  for  foreign  service  was 
so  universal,  that  young  gentlemen  of  family,  vvho  wished 
to  see  the  world,  used  to  travel  on  the  Continent  from 
place  to  place,  and  from  state  to  state,  and  defray  their 
expenses  by  engaging  for  a  few  weeks  or  months  in  mil- 
itary service  in  the  garrison  or  guards  of  the  state  in 
which  they  made  their  temporary  residence.  It  is  but 
doing  the  Scots  justice  to  say,  that  while  thus  acting  as 
mercenary  soldiers,  they  acquired  a  high  character  for 
courage,  military  skill,  and  a  faithful  adherence  to  their 
engagements.  The  Scots  regiments  in  the  Swedish  ser- 
vice were  the  first  troops  who  employed  platoon  firing, 
by  which  they  contributed  greatly  to  achieve  the  decisive 
battle  of  Lutzen. 

Besides  the  many  thousand  Scottish  emigrants  who 
pursued  the  trade  of  war  on  the  Continent,  there  was 
another  numerous  class  who  undertook  the  toilsome  and 
precarious  task  of  travelling  merchants,  or  to  speak  plainly, 
of  pedlers,  and  were  employed  in  conducting  the  petty 
inland  commerce,  which  gave  the  inhabitants  of  Germany, 
Poland,  and  the  northern  parts  of  Europe  in  general,  op- 
portunities of  purchasing  articles  of  domestic  convenience. 
There  were  at  that  time  few  towns,  and  in  these  towns 
there  were  few  shops  regularly  open.  When  an  inhabitant 
of  the  country,  of  high  or  low  degree,  had  to  purchase 
any  article  of  dress  or  domestic  convenience  which  he  did 
not  manufacture  himself,  he  was  obliged  to  attend  at  the 
next  fair,  to  which  the  travelling  merchants  flocked,  in 
order  to  expose  their  goods  to  sale.  Or  if  the  buyer  did 
not  choose  to  take  that  trouble,  he  must  wait  till  somo 
885 


82  IMPERFECT    ENFORCEMENT 

pedler,  who  carried  his  goods  on  horseback,  in  a  small 
wain,  or  perhaps  in  a  pack  upon  his  shoulders,  made  his 
wandering  journey  through  the  country.  It  has  been  made 
matter  of  ridicule  against  the  Scots,  that  this  traflic  fell 
into  their  hands,  as  a  frugal,  patient,  provident  and  labo- 
rious people,  possessing  some  share  of  education,  which 
we  shall  presently  see  was  now  becoming  general  amongst 
them.  But  we  cannot  think  that  the  business  which  re- 
quired such  attributes  to  succeed  in  it,  could  be  dishon- 
ourable to  those  who  pursued  it  j  and  we  believe  that 
those  Scots  who,  in  honest  commerce,  supplied  foreign- 
ers with  the  goods  they  required,  were  at  least  as  well 
employed  as  those  who  assisted  them  in  killing  each  other. 

While  the  Scots  thus  continued  to  improve  their. con- 
dition by  enterprise  abroad,  they  gradually  sunk  into  peace- 
ful habits  at  home.  In  the  wars  of  Queen  Mary's  time, 
and  those  of  King  James's  minority,  we  have  the  author- 
ity of  a  great  lawyer,  the  first  Earl  of  Haddington,  gene- 
rally known  by  the  name  of  Tom  of  the  Cowgate,  to 
assure  us,  that  "  the  whole  country  was  so  miserably  dis- 
tracted, not  only  by  the  accustomed  barbarity  of  the  High- 
lands and  Borders,  which  was  greatly  increased,  but  by 
the  cruel  dissensions  arising  from  public  factions  and  pri- 
vate feuds,  that  men  of  every  rank  daily  wore  steel-jacks, 
knapscaps  or  head-pieces,  plate-sleeves,  and  pistols  and 
poniards,  being  as  necessary  parts  of  their  apparel  as  their 
doublets  and  breeches."  Their  disposition  was,  of  course, 
as  warlike  as  their  dress  ;  and  the  same  authority  informs 
us,  that  whatever  was  the  cause  of  their  assemblies  or 
meetings,  fights  arid  affrays  were  the  necessary  conse- 
quence before  they  separated  ;  and  this  not  at  parlia- 
ments, conventions,  trysts,  and  markets  only,  but  likewise 
•n  church-yards,  churches,  and  places  appointed  for  the 
exercise  of  religion. 

This  universal  state  of  disorder  was  not  owing  to  any 
want  of  laws  against  such  enormities  ;  on  the  contrary,  the 
Scottish  legislature  was  more  severe  than  that  of  England, 
accounting  a  slaughter  taking  place  on  a  sudden  quarrel, 
without  previous  malice,  as  murder.  ,vhich  the  law  oi 


OF    THE    LAWS.  83 

England  rated  under  the  milder  denomination  of  man- 
slaughter. And  this  severity  was  introduced  into  the  law 
expressly  to  restrain  the  peculiar  furious  temper  of  the 
Scottish  nation.  It  was  not,  therefore,  laws  which  were 
wanting  to  restrain  violence,  but  the  regular  and  due  ex- 
ecution of  such  as  existed.  An  ancient  Scottish  states- 
man and  judge,  who  was  also  a  poet,  has  alluded  to  the 
means  used  to  save  the  guilty  from  deserved  punishment. 
"  We  are  allowed  some  skill,"  he  says,  "  in  making;  good 
laws,  but  God  knows  how  ill  they  are  kept  and  enforced  ; 
since  a  man  accused  of  a  crime  will  frequently  appear  at 
the  bar  of  a  court  to  which  he  is  summoned,  with  such  a 
company  of  armed  friends  at  his  back,  as  if  it  were  his 
purpose  to  defy  and  intimidate  both  judge  and  jury."  The 
interest  of  great  men,  moreover,  obtained  often  by  bribes, 
interposed  between  a  criminal  and  justice,  and  saved  by 
court  favour  the  life  which  was  forfeited  to  the  laws. 

James  made  great  reformation  in  these  pauiculars,  as 
soon  as  his  power,  increased  by  the  union  of  the  two 
kingdoms,  gave  him  the  means  of  doing  so.  The  laws, 
as  we  have  seen  in  more  cases  than  one,  were  enforced 
with  greater  severity  ;  and  the  assistance  of  powerful 
friends,  nay,  the  interposition  of  courtiers  and  favourites, 
was  less  successful  in  interfering  with  the  course  of  jus- 
tice, or  obtaining  remissions  and  pardons  for  condemned 
criminals.  Thus  the  wholesome  terror  of  justice  gradu- 
ally imposed  a  restraint  on  the  general  violence  and  dis- 
order which  had  followed  the  civil  wars  of  Scotland. 
Still,  however,  as  the  barons  held,  by  means  of  their  he- 
reditary jurisdictions,  the  exclusive  right  to  try  and  to 
punish  such  crimes  as  were  committed  on  their  own  es  • 
tates  ;  and  as  they  often  did  not  choose  to  do  so,  either 
because  the  action  had  been  committed  by  the  baron's  own 
direction  ;  or  that  the  malefactor  was  a  strong  and  active 
partizan,  of  whose  service  the  lord  might  have  need  ;  or 
because  the  judge  and  criminal  stood  in  some  degree  of 
relationship  to  each  other;  in  all  such. cases,  the  culprit's 
escape  from  justice  was  a  necessary  consequence  Nev- 
ertheless, viewing  Scotland  generally,  the  progress  of 


54  HEREDITARY    JURISDICTIONS. 

public  justice  at  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  was  much  purer,  and  less  liable  to  interruption, 
than  in  former  ages,  and  the  disorders  of  the  country  were 
fewer  in  proportion. 

The  law  and  its  terrors  had  its  effect  in  preventing  the 
frequency  of  crime  ;  but  it  could  not  have  been  in  the 
power  of  mere  human  laws,  and  the  punishments  which 
they  enacted,  to  eradicate  from  the  national  feelings  the 
proneness  to  violence,  and  the  thirst  of  revenge,  which 
had  been  so  long  a  general  characteristic  of  the  Scottish 
people.  The  heathenish  and  accursed  custom  of  deadly 
feud,  or  the  duty,  as  it  was  thought,  of  exacting  blood  for 
blood,  and  perpetuating  a  chance  quarrel,  by  handing  it 
down  to  future  generations,  could  only  give  place  to  those 
pure  religious  doctrines  which  teach  men  to  practise,  not 
the  revenge,  but  the  forgiveness  of  injuries,  as  the  only 
means  of  acquiring  the  favour  of  Heaven. 

The  Presbyterian  preachers,  in  throwing  away  the  ex- 
ternal pomp  and  ceremonial  of  religious  worship,  had  in- 
culcated, in  its  place,  the  most  severe  observation  of 
morality.  It  was  objected  to  them,  indeed,  that  as  in 
their  model  of  church  government,  the  Scottish  clerg) 
claimed  an  undue  influence  over  state  affairs,  so,  in  their 
professions  of  doctrine  and  practice,  they  verged  towards 
an  ascetic  system,  in  which  too  much  weight  was  laid  on 
venial  transgressions,  and  the  opinions  of  other  Christian 
churches  were  treated  with  too  little  liberality.  But  no 
one  who  considers  their  works,  and  their  history,  can  de- 
ny to  those  respectable  men,  the  merit  of  practising,  in 
the  most  rigid  extent,  the  strict  doctrines  of  morality 
which  they  taught.  They  despised  wealth,  shunned  even 
harmless  pleasures,  and  acquired  the  love  of  their  flocks, 
by  attending  to  their  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  diseases. 
They  preached  what  they  themselves  seriously  believed 
and  they  were  believed  because  they  spoke  with  all  the 
earnestness  of  conviction.  They  spared  neither  example 
nor  precept  to  improve  the  more  ignorant  of  their  hear- 
ers, and  often  endangered  their  own  lives  in  attempting  to 
«nit  a  stop  to  the  feuds  and  frays  which  daily  occurred  in 


INFLUENCE    OF    THE    REFORMERS.  85 

their  bounds.  It  is  recorded  of  a  wo/thy  clergyman 
whose  parish  was  peculiarly  distracted  by  the  brawls  ol 
the  quarrelsome  inhabitants,  that  he  used  constantly  to 
wear  a  stout  steel  head-piece,  which  bore  an  odd  appear- 
ance contrasted  with  his  clerical  dress.  The  purpose  was, 
that  when  he  saw  swords  drawn  in  the  street,  which  was 
almost  daily,  he  might  run  between  the  combatants,  and 
thus  separate  them,  with  less  risk  of  being  killed  by  a 
chance  blow.  So  that  his  venturous  and  dauntless  hu- 
manity was  perpetually  placing  his  life  in  danger. 

The  clergy  of  that  day  were  frequently  respectable 
from  their  birth  and  connexions,  often  from  their  learning, 
and  at  all  times  from  their  character.  These  qualities 
enabled  them  to  interfere  with  effect,  even  in  the  feuds  ol 
the  barons  and  gentry  ;  and  they  often  brought  to  milder 
and  more  peaceful  thoughts,  men  who  would  not  have 
listened  to  any  other  intercessors.  There  is  no  doubt, 
that  these  good  men,  and  the  Christianity  which  they 
taught,  were  one  of  the  principal  means  of  correcting  the 
furious  temper  and  revengeful  habits  of  the  Scottish  na- 
tion, in  whose  eyes  bloodshed  and  deadly  vengeance  had 
been  till  then  a  virtue. 

Besides  the  precepts  and  examples  of  religion  and  mo- 
rality, the  encouragement  of  general  information  and 
knowledge  is  also  an  effectual  mode  of  taming  and  sub- 
duing the  wild  habits  of  a  military  and  barbarous  people. 
For  this  also  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland  were  indebted  to 
the  Presbyterian  ministers. 

The  Catholic  clergy  had  been  especially  instrumental 
in  the  foundation  of  three  universities  in  Scotland,  name- 
ly, those  of  Glasgow,  St.  Andrews,  and  Aberdeen  ;  but 
these  places  of  education,  from  the  very  nature  of  their 
institutions,  were  only  calculated  for  the  education  of  stu- 
dents designed  for  the  church,  or  of  those  youths  from 
among  the  higher  classes  of  the  laity,  whom  their  parents 
might  wish  to  receive  such  information  as  might  qual- 
ify them  for  lawyers  and  statesmen.  The  more  noble 
view  of  the  Reformed  Church,  was  to  extend  the  bless- 


66  SPREAD    OF     !•;  1)1  CATION. 

ings  of  knowledge  to  the  lower,  as  well  a3  the  higher 
classes  of  society. 

The  preachers  of  the  reformation  had  appealed  to  the 
Scriptures  as  the  rule  of  their  doctrine,  and  it  was  their 
honourable  and  liberal  desire,  that  the  poorest,  as  well  as 
the  richest  man,  should  have  an  opportunity  of  judging, 
by  his  own  perusal  of  the  sacred  volume,  whether  they 
had  interpreted  the  text  truly  and  faithfully.  The  inven- 
tion of  printing  had  made  the  Scriptures  accessible  tc 
every  one,  and  the  clergy  desired  that  the  meanest  peas- 
ant should  have  the  skill  necessary  to  peruse  them.  John 
Knox,  and  other  leaders  of  the  Congregation,  had,  from 
the  very  era  of  the  Reformation,  pressed  the  duty  of  re- 
serving from  the  confiscated  revenues  of  the  Romish 
Church  the  means  of  providing  for  the  clergy  with  de- 
cency, and  of  establishing  colleges  and  schools  for  the 
education  of  youth  ;  but  their  wishes  were  for  a  long  time 
disappointed  by  the  avarice  of  the  nobility  and  gentry, 
who  were  determined  to  retain  for  their  own  use  the  spoils 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  by  the  stormy  complexion 
of  the  times,  in  which  little  was  regarded  save  what  be- 
longed to  politics  and  war. 

At  length  the  legislature,  chiefly  by  the  influence  of  the 
clergy,  was  induced  to  authorize  the  noble  enactment, 
which  appoints  a  school  to  be  kept  in  every  parish  of  Scot- 
land, at  a  low  rate  of  endowment  indeed,  but  such  as  en- 
ables every  poor  man  within  the  parish  to  procure  for  his 
children  the  knowledge  of  reading  and  writing  ;  and  af 
fords  an  opportunity  for  those  who  show  a  decided  taste 
for  learning,  to  obtain  such  progress  in  classical  knowledge, 
as  may  fit  them  for  college  studies.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  that  the  opportunity  afforded,  of  procuring  instruc- 
tion thus  easily,  tended,  in  the  course  of  a  generation, 
greatly  to  civilize  and  humanize  the  character  of  the 
Scottish  nation  ;  and  it  is  equally  certain,  that  this  gene- 
ral access  to  useful  knowledge,  has  not  only  given  rise  to 
the  success  of  many  men  of  genius,  who  otherwise  would 
never  have  aspired  above  the  humble  rank  in  which  they 
were  horn,  but  has  raised  the  common  people  of  Scotland 


JAMES  S    VISIT    TO    SCOTLAND.  87 

in  general,  in  knowledge,  sagacity,  and  intelligence,  many 
degrees  above  those  of  most  other  countries. 

The  Highlands  and  islands  did  not  share  the  influence 
of  religion  and  education,  which  so  essentially  benefited 
their  Lowland  countrymen,  owing  to  their  speaking  a  lan- 
guage different  from  the  rest  of  Scotland,  as  well  as  to 
the  difficulty,  or  rather  at  that  time  the  impossibility,  ot 
establishing  churches  or  schools  in  such  a  remote  country, 
ajid  amongst  natives  of  such  wild  manners. 

To  the  reign  of  James  VI.  it  is  only  necessary  to  add, 
that  in  1617  he  revisited  his  ancient  kingdom  of  Scotland, 
from  the  same  instinct,  as  his  Majesty  was  pleased  to  ex- 
press it,  which  induces  salmon,  after  they  have  visited 
the  sea,  to  return  to  the  river  in  which  they  have  been 
bred. 

He  was  received  with  every  appearance  of  affection  by 
his  Scottish  subjects  ;  and  the  only  subject  of  suspicion, 
doubt,  or  quarrel,  betwixt  the  King  and  them,  arose  from 
the  partiality  he  evinced  to  the  form  and  ritual  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  true  Presbyterians  groaned 
heavily  at  seeing  choristers  and  singing  boys  arrayed  in 
white  surplices,  and  at  hearing  them  chant  the  service  of 
the  Church  of  England  ;  and  they  were  in  despair  when 
they  saw  his  Majesty's  private  chapel  adorned  with  pic- 
tures representing  scriptural  subjects.  All  this,  and  every 
thing  like  an  established  and  prescribed  form  of  prayer, 
in  garb  or  decoration,  was,  in  their  idea,  a  greater  or  less 
approximation  to  the  practices  of  the  church  of  Rome 
This  was,  indeed,  mere  prejudice,  but  it  was  a  prejudice 
D("  little  consequence  in  itself,  and  James  ought  to  have 
rather  respected  than  combated  feelings  connected  with 
much  that  was  both  moral  and  religious,  and  honoured 
the  right  which  his  Scottish  subjects  might  justly  claim  to 
worship  God  after  their  own  manner,  and  not  according 
to  the  rules  and  ceremonies  of  a  foreign  country.  His 
obstinacy  on  this  point  was,  however,  satisfied  with  car- 
rying through  the  Articles  of  Perth,  already  mentioned, 
which  were  finally  admitted  in  the  year  after  his  visit  to 
Scotland  He  left  to  his  successor  the  task  of  arcom 


88  DEATH    OF    JAMKS    VI. 

plishing  a  complete  conformity,  in  ritual  and  doctrine,  be 
tween  the   churches  of  South   and  North   Britain — and 
very  dear  the  attempt  cost  him. 

In  tire  year  1625,  James  died.  He  was  the  .east  dig- 
nified and  accomplished  of  all  his  family  ;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  the  most  fortunate.  Robert  II.,  the  first  of 
the  Stewart  family,  died,  it  is  true,  in  peace  ;  but  Robert 
111.  had  sunk  under  the  family  fosses  which  he  had  sus- 
tained ;  James  I.  was  murdered  ;  James  II.  killed  by  the 
bursting  of  a  cannon  ;  James  III.,  (whom  James  VI. 
chiefly  resembled,)  was  privately  slain  after  the  battle  of 
Sauchie-Barn  ;  James  IV.  fell  at  Flodden  ;  James  V. 
died  of  a  broken  heart  ;  Henry  Darnley,  the  father  of 
James  VI.  was  treacherously  murdered;  and  his  mother, 
Queen  Mary,  was  tyrannically  beheaded.  He  himself 
alone,  without  courage,  without  sound  sagacity,  without 
that  feeling  of  dignity  which  should  restrain  a  prince  from 
foolish  indulgences,  became  King  of  the  great  nation 
which  had  for  ages  threatened  to  subdue  that  of  which  he 
was  born  monarch  ;  and  the  good  fortune  of  the  Stewart 
family,  which  seems  to  have  existed  in  his  person  alone, 
declined  and  totally  decayed  in  those  of  his  successors. 

James  had  lost  his  eldest  son,  Henry,  a  youth  of  ex- 
traordinary promise.  His  second,  Charles  I.,  succeeded 
him  in  the  throne.  He  left  also  one  daughter,  Elizabeth, 
married  to  Frederick,  the  Elector  Palatine  of  the  German 
empire.  He  was  an  unfortunate  prince,  and  with  a  view 
of  obtaining  the  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  engaged  in  a  ruin- 
ous war  with  the  Emperor,  by  which  he  lost  his  hered- 
itary dominions.  But  the  Elector's  evil  fortune  was  re- 
deemed in  the  person  of  his  descendants,  from  whom 
sprung  tho  royal  family  which  now  possess  th ;  British 
throne,  in  right  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth. 


ABUSES    IN    THE    RE  ION    OF    JAMES.  89 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Discontents  excited  during  James's  Reign — increased 
under  Charles — Introduction  of  the  English  Liturgy 
into  the  Scottish  Church — National  Covenant — The 
Scottish  Army  enters  England — Concessions  of  the 
King  to  the  Long  Parliament,  upon  which  the  Scottish 
Jlrmy  returns  home — Charles  visits  Scotland,  and 
gains  over  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  to  the  Royal 
Cause — The  Two  Parties  of  Cavaliers  and  Round- 
heads— Arrest  of  Five  Members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons— Civil  War  in  England. 

CHARLES  I.,  who  succeeded  his  father  James,  was  a 
Prince  whose  personal  qualities  were  excellent.  It  was 
said  of  him  justly,  that  considered  as  a  private  gentleman, 
there  was  not  a  more  honourable,  virtuous,  and  religious 
man,  in  his  dominions.  He  was  a  kind  father,  master, 
and  even  too  affectionate  husband,  permitting  the  Queen 
Henrietta  Maria,  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Henry  IV.  ol 
France,  to  influence  his  government  too  much.  Charles 
had  also  the  dignity  which  his  father  totally  wanted  ;  and 
there  is  no  just  occasion  to  question  that  so  good  a  man 
as  we  have  described  him,  had  the  intention  to  rule  his 
people  justly  and  mercifully,  in  place  of  enforcing  the 
ancient  feudal  thraldom.  But  on  the  other  hand,  he  en- 
tertained extravagant  ideas  of  the  regal  power,  feelings 
which,  being  peculiarly  unsuitable  to  the  times  in  which 
he  lived,  occasioned  his  own  total  ruin,  and,  for  a  time, 
that  of  his  posterity. 

The  English  people  had  been  now,  for  a  century  and 
more,  relieved  from  the  severe  yoke  of  the  nobles,  and  had 
forgotten  how  it  had  pressed  upon  their  forefathers.  What 
bad  galled  them  in  the  late  reign,  were  the  exactions  ol 


90  THE    STAR-CHAMBER. 

King  James  who,  to  indulge  his  prodigal  l:berality  to 
worthless  favourites,  had  extorted  from  Parliament  large 
supplies,  and  having  misapplied  these,  had  endeavoured 
to  ohtain  others  by  granting  to  individuals,  for  sums  ot 
money,  exclusive  rights  to  sell  certain  commodities,  which 
the  monopolist  immediately  raised  to  a  high  rate,  and 
made  a  large  fortune,  while  the  king  got  little  by  the  bribe 
which  he  had  received,  and  the  subjects  suffered  extreme- 
ly by  the  price  of  articles,  necessaries  perhaps  of  life,  being 
unduly  raised.  Yet  James,  finding  that  a  spirit  of  oppo- 
sition had  arisen  within  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that 
grants  of  money  were  obtained  with  difficulty,  would  not 
refrain  from  such  indirect  practices  to  obtain  money  from 
the  people  without  the  consent  of  their  representatives  in 
Parliament.  It  was  his  object  also  to  support  the  royal 
power  in  the  full  authority,  which,  by  gradual  encroach- 
ments, it  attained  during  the  reign  of  the  Tudors  ;  and 
he  was  disposed  to  talk  high  of  his  prerogative,  for  which 
he  stated  himself  to  be  accountable  to  God  alone  ;  where- 
as it  was  the  just  principle  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
that  the  power  of  the  king,  like  every  other  power  in  the 
constitution,  was  limited  by  the  laws,  and  was  legally  to 
be  resisted  when  it  trespassed  beyond  them.  Such  were 
the  disputes  which  James  held  with  his  subjects.  His 
timidity  prevented  him  from  pushing  his  claims  to  ex- 
tremity, and  although  courtly  divines  and  ambitious  law- 
yers were  ready  to  have  proved,  as  they  pretended,  his 
absolute  and  indefeasible  right  to  obedience,  even  in  un- 
constitutional commands,  he  shrunk  from  the  contest,  and 
left  to  his  son  much  discontent  which  his  conduct  had 
excited,  but  which  did  not  immediately  break  into  a 
flame. 

Charles  held  the  same  opinions  of  his  own  rights  as  a 
monarch,  which  had  been  infused  into  him  by  his  father's 
instructions,  and  he  was  obstinate  and  persevering  where 
James  had  been  timid  and  flexible.  Arbitrary  courts  01 
justice,  particularly  one  termed  the  Star-chamber,  afford- 
ed the  King  the  means  of  punishing  those  who  opposed 
themcelvrs  to  the  royal  will  ;  but  the  violence  of  authcr- 


THE    PURITANS.  91 

ily  only  increased  the  sense  of  the  evil,  and  a  general 
discontent  against  the  King's  person  and  prerogative  be- 
gan to  prevail  throughout  England. 

These  menacing  appearances  were  much  increased  by 
religious  motives.  The  church  of  England  had  been 
since  the  Reformation  gradually  dividing  into  two  parties, 
one  of  which,  warmly  approved  of  by  King  James,  and 
yet  more  keenly  patronized  by  Charles,  was  peculiarly 
attached  to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  church,  the 
strict  observance  of  particular  forms,  and  the  use  of  cer- 
tain pontifical  dresses  when  divine  service  was  performed. 
A  numerous  party  called  the  Puritans,  although  they  com- 
plied with  the  model  of  the  Church  of  England,  consid- 
ered these  peculiar  rites  and  formalities,  on  which  the 
High  Churchmen,  as  the  opposite  party  began  to  be  called, 
laid  such  stress,  as  remains  of  Popery,  and  things  there- 
fore to  be  abolished. 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Laud,  a  man  of 
talents  and  learning,  was  devotedly  attached  to  the  High 
Church  interest,  and  countenanced  by  Charles,  he  re- 
solved to  use  all  the  powers,  both  of  the  civil  and  spiritual 
courts,  to  subdue  the  refractory  spirit  of  the  Puritans, 
and  enforce  their  compliance  with  the  ceremonies  which 
he  thought  so  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  church. 
If  men  had  been  left  to  entertain  calm  and  quiet  thoughts 
on  these  points,  they  would  in  time  have  discovered 
that,  having  chosen  what  was  esteemed  the  most  suit- 
able rules  for  the  national  church,  it  would  have  been 
more  wise  and  prudent  to  leave  the  consciences  of  the 
hearers  to  determine  whether  they  would  conform  to  them, 
or  assemble  for  worship  elsewhere.  But  prosecutions, 
fines,  pillories,  and  imprisonments,  employed  to  restrain 
religious  opinions,  only  make  them  burn  the  more  fierce- 
ly ;  and  those  who  submitted  to  such  sufferings  with  pa- 
tience rather  than  renounce  the  doctrines  they  had  es- 
poused, were  counted  as  martyrs,  and  followed  accord- 
ingly. These  dissensions  in  church  and  state  continued 
o  agitate  England  from  year  to  year  ;  but  it  was  the  dis 
turbanees  of  Scotland  which  brought  them  to  a  crisis. 


92  TITHES. 

The  King  had  kept  firmly  in  view  his  father's  favourite 
project  of  bringing  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  point  of 
church  government  and  church  ceremonies,  to  the  same 
model  with  that  of  England.  But  to  settle  a  national 
church,  with  a  gradation  of  dignified  clergy,  required  large 
funds,  which  Scotland  could  not  afford  for  such  a  purpose. 
In  this  dilemma,  the  King  and  his  counsellors  resolved,  by 
one  sweeping  act  of  revocation,  to  resume  to  the  Crown 
all  the  tithes  and  benefices  which  had  been  conferred 
upon  laymen  at  the  Reformation,  and  thus  obtain  the 
funds  necessary  to  endow  the  projected  bishoprics. 

I  must  try  to  explain  to  you  what  tithes  are  :  By  the  law 
delivered  to  the  Jews,  the  tithes,  that  is  the  tenth  part  of 
the  yearly  produce  of  the  land  ;  whether  in  animals  born 
on  the  soil,  or  in  corn,  fruit  and  vegetable  productions, 
were  destined  to  the  support  of  the  priests.  The  same 
rule  was  adopted  by  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  tithes 
were  levied  from  the  farmer  or  possessor  of  the  land,  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishments. 
When  the  Reformation  took  place,  the  great  nobles  and 
gentry  of  Scotland  got  grants  of  these  tithes  from  the 
crown,  engaging  to  take  upon  themselves  the  support  of 
the  clergy,  whom  they  paid  at  as  low  a  rate  as  possible. 
Those  nobles  and  gentry  who  held  such  gifts,  were  called 
Titulars  of  tithes,  answering  to  the  English  phrase  of 
Impropriators.  They  used  the  privileges  which  they  had 
acquired  with  great  rigour.  They  would  not  suffer  the 
farmer  to  lead  a  sheaf  of  corn  from  the  field  until  the 
tithe  had  been  selected  and  removed,  and  in  this  way  ex- 
ercised their  right  with  far  more  severity  than  had  been 
done  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  who  usually  accept- 
ed a  certain  reasonable  sum  of  money,  and  thus  left  the 
proprietor  of  the  crop  to  manage  it  as  he  would,  instead 
of  actually  taking  the  tithes  in  kind.  But  the  titulars,  as 
they  used  their  privilege  with  rigour  and  to  the  utmost, 
were  equally  tenacious  in  retaining  it. 

When  assembled  in  Parliament,  or  as  it  was  termed, 
tiie  Convention  of  Estates,  the  lords  who  were  possessed 
of  grants  of  tithes  determined  that  rather  than  yield  to 


the  revocation  proposed  by  the  Earl  of  Nithisdale,  who 
was  the  royal  commissioner,  they  would  massacre  him  and 
his  adherents  in  the  face  of  the  assembly.  This  purpose 
was  so  decidedly  entertained,  that  Lord  Belhaven,  an  old 
blind  man,  placed  himself  close  to  the  Earl  of  Dumfries, 
a  supporter  of  the  intended  revocation,  and  keeping  hold 
of  his  neighbour  with  one  hand,  for  which  he  apologized, 
as  being  necessary  to  enable  him  to  support  himself,  he 
held  in  the  other  the  hilt  of  a  dagger  concealed  in  his 
bosom,  that  as  soon  as  the  general  signal  should  be  given, 
he  might  play  his  part  in  the  tragedy  by  plunging  it  into 
Lord  Dumfries'  heart.  Nithisdile,  learning  something 
of  this  desperate  resolution,  gave  the  revocation  up  for 
the  time,  and  returned  to  court. 

The  King,  however,  was  at  length  able,  by  the  assist- 
ance of  a  convention  of  the  clergy  summoned  together  by 
the  bishops,  and  by  the  general  clamour  of  the  land- 
owners, who  complained  of  the  rigorous  exactions  of 
the  titulars,  to  obtain  a  partial  surrender  of  the  tithes  into 
the  power  of  the  crown.  The  power  of  levying  them  in 
kind  was  suppressed  ;  the  landholder  was  invested  with 
a  right  to  have  the  tithe  upon  paying  a  modified  sum,  and 
to  purchase  the  entire  right  from  the  titular  (if  he  had  the 
means  to  do  so)  at  a  rate  of  purchase  restricted  to  seven 
years'  rent. 

These  alterations  were  attended  with  the  greatest  ad- 
vantages to  the  country  in  process  of  time,  but  they  were 
very  offensive  to  the  Scottish  nobility. 

Charles  also  made  an  attempt  to  reverse  some  of  the 
attainders  which  had  taken  place  in  his  father's  time,  par- 
ticularly that  of  Stewart,  Earl  of  Bothwell.  Much  ot 
this  turbulent  nobleman's  forfeited  property  had  fallen  to 
the  lot  of  the  Lords  of  Buccleuch  and  Cessford,  wlw 
were  compelled  to  surrender  a  part  of  their  spoils.  These 
proceedings,  as  well  as  the  revocation  of  the  grants  ol 
tithes,  highly  irritated  the  Scottish  nobility,  and  some  wild 
proposals  were  held  among  them  for  dethroning  Charles 
und  placing  the  Marquis  of  Hamiltor  on  the  throne. 


COURT  OF  c  ii  iv  AM:  Y. 


The  only  remarkable  consequence  of  this  intngue,  was 
A  trial  in  the  long  forgotten  Court  of  Chivalry,  the  last,  it 
may  he  supposed,  that  will  ever  take  place.  Donald 
Lord  Reay  affirmed,  that  Mr.  David  Ramsay  had  used 
certain  treasonable  expressions  in  his,  the  said  Donald's 
hearing.  Both  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
High  Constable  of  England.  They  appeared  accordingly, 
ID  great  pomp,  attended  by  their  friends. 

"  Lord  Reay,"  says  an  eye-witness,  "  was  clothed  in 
black  velvet,  embroidered  with  silver,  carried  his  sword 
in  a  silver'  embroidered  belt,  and  wore  around  his  neck 
his  badge  as  a  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia.  He  was  a  tall, 
black,  swarthy  man,  of  a  portly  and  stout  demeanour." 
The  defender  was  next  ushered  in,  a  fair  man,  and  having 
a  head  of  ruddy  hair  so  bushy  and  long,  that  he  was  usu- 
ally termed  Ramsay  Redhead.  He  was  dressed  in  scar- 
let, so  richly  embroidered  with  gold,  that  the  cloth  could 
scarcely  be  discerned,  but  he  was  totally  unarmed.  While 
they  fixed  their  eyes  on  each  other  sternly,  the  charge 
was  read,  stating  that  Ramsay,  the  defendant,  had  urged 
him,  Lord  Reay,  to  engage  in  a  conspiracy  for  dethron- 
ing the  King,  and  placing  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  upon 
the  throne.  He  added,  that  if  Ramsay  should  deny  this, 
he  would  prove  him  a  villain  and  traitor  by  dint  of  sword. 
Ramsay,  for  answer,  called  Reay  "  a  liar  and  barbarous 
villain,  and  protested  he  should  die  for  it."  They  ex- 
changed gloves.  After  many  delays,  the  Court  named  a 
day  of  combat,  assigning  as  the  weapons  to  be  used,  a 
spear,  a  long  sword,  and  a  short  sword  or  a  dagger.  The 
most  minute  circumstances  were  arranged,  and  provision 
was  even  made  at  what  time  the  parties  might  have  the 
assistance  of  armourers  and  tailors,  with  hammers,  nails. 
files,  scissors,  bodkins,  needles,  and  thread.  But  now, 
when  you  are  perhaps  expecting,  with  curiosity,  a  tale 
of  a  bloody  fight,  I  have  to  acquaint  you  that  the  King 
forbade  the  combat,  and  the  affair  was  put  to  sleep. 
Times  were  greatly  changed  since  the  days  when  almost 
every  tpecies  of  accusation  might  be  tried  by  duel 


CIIARLF.s's    VISIT    TO    SCOTLAND.  05 

Charles  visited  his  native  country  in  1633  for  the 
purpose  of  being  crowned.  .  He  was  received  by  the  peo- 
ple at  first  with  great  apparent  affection,  but  discontent 
arose  on  its  being  observed,  that  he  omitted  no  opportu- 
nity ol  pressing  upon  the  bishop,  who  had  hitherto  only 
worn  plain  black  gowns,  the  use  of  the  more  splendid 
vestments  of  the  English  Church.  This  alteration  o> 
habit  grievously  offended  the  Presbyterians,  who  saw  in 
it  a  farther  approximation  to  the  Romish  ritual  ;  while  the 
nobility,  remembering  that  they  had  been  partly  deprived 
of  their  tithes,  and  that  their  possession  of  the  church 
lands  was  in  danger,  saw  with  great  pleasure  the  obnox- 
ious prelates,  for  whose  sake  the  revocation  had  been 
made,  incur  the  odium  of  the  people  at  large. 

It  was  left  for  Archbishop  Laud  to  bring  all  this  slum- 
bering discontent  into  action,  by  an  attempt  to  introduce 
into  the  divine  service  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  a  Form 
of  Common  Prayer  and  Liturgy  similar  to  that  used  in 
England.  This,  however  reasonable  an  institution  in  it- 
self, was  at  variance  with  the  character  of  Presbyterian 
.vorship,  in  which  the  clergyman  always  addressed  the 
Deity  in  extemporaneous  prayer,  and  in  no  prescribed,  or 
regular  form  of  words.  King  James  himself,  when  court- 
ing the  favour  of  the  Presbyterian  party,  had  called  the 
English  service  an  ill-mumbled  mass ;  forgetting  that  the 
objection  to  that  ceremony  applies,  not  to  the  prayers, 
which  must  be  excellent,  since  they  are  chiefly  extracted 
from  Scripture,  but  to  the  worship  of  the  Eucharist,  which 
Protestants  think  idolatrous,  and  to  the  service,  as  being 
couched  in  a  foreign  language.  Neither  of  these  object- 
ions applies  to  the  English  form  of  prayer  ;  but  the  ex- 
pression of  the  King  was  not  forgotten. 

Upon  the  whole,  this  new  and  most  obnoxious  change 
in  the  form  of  public  worship,  throughout  Scotland,  wher? 
the  nobility  were  known  to  be  in  a  state  of  great  discon- 
tent, was  very  ill-timed.  Right  or  wrong,  the  people  in 
genBral  were  prejudiced  against  the  innovation,  and  yet  it 
was  to  be  attempted,  without  any  other  authority  than  that 
of  the  King  and  the  Bishops  ;  while  both  the  Parliament, 


I  V Tftoin  »  TI'iN     OF    THF.     I.IITIMiV 

and  a  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  had 
a  right  to  be  consulted  in  a  matter  so  important. 

The  rash  and  fatal  experiment  was  made,  23d  July 
1 037,  in  the  High  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edinburgh,  where 
the  dean  of  the  city  prepared  to  read  the  new  service 
before  a  numerous  concourse  of  persons,  none  of  who.r* 
seem  to  have  been  favourably  disposed  to  its  reception. 
As  the  reader  of  the  prayers  announced  the  Collect  for 
the  day,  an  old  woman,  named  Jenny  Geddes,  who  kep- 
a  green-stall  in  the  High  Street,  bawled  out — "  The  ded 
colick  in  the  wame  of  tliee,  tliou  false  thief  !  dost  thou 
say  the  mass  at  my  lug  ?"  With  that  she  flung  at  the  dean's 
head  the  stool  upon  which  she  had  been  sitting,  and  a  wild 
tumult  instantly  commenced.  The  women  of  lower  con- 
dition flew  at  the  dean,  tore  the  surplice  from  his  should- 
ers, and  drove  him  out  of  the  church.  The  Bishop  01 
Edinburgh  mounted  the  pulpit,  but  was  also  assailed  with 
missiles,  and  the  windows  were  broken  with  stones  flung 
oy  a  disorderly  multitude  from  without.  This  was  not 
all :  the  prelates  were  assaulted  in  the  street,  and  misused 
oy  the  mob.  The  life  of  the  Bishop  of  Argyle  was  with 
difficulty  saved  by  Lord  Roxburgh,  who  carried  him 
home  in  his  carriage,  surrounded  by  his  retinue  with 
drawn  swords. 

This  tumult,  which  has  now  something  ludicrous  in  its 
details,  was  the  signal  for  a  general  resistance  to  the  re- 

*  w  O 

ception  of  the  Service-book  throughout  the  whole  coun- 
try. The  Privy  Council  of  Scotland  were  lukewarm 
or  rather  cold,  in  the  cause.  They  wrote  to  Charles  a 
detailed  account  of  the  tumults,  and  did  not  conceal, 
that  the  opposition  to  the  measure  was  spreading  far  anc 
wide. 

Charles  was  inflexible,  and  showed  his  displeasure  even 
in  trifles.  It  was  the  ancient  custom,  that  a  fool,  or  jester, 
was  maintained  at  court,  privileged  to  break  his  satirical 
jests  at  random.  The  post  was  then  held  by  one  Archie 
Armstrong,  who,  as  he  saw  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
posting  to  court,  in  consequence  of  the  mortifying  tidings 
from  Scotland,  could  not  help  whispering  the  sly  question. 


INTO    THE    SCOTTISH    CtiUitCH.  07 

"  Who's  the  fool  now,  my  lord  ?"  For  this  jest,  poor 
Archie,  having  been  first  severely  whipped,  was  disgraced 
and  dismissed  from  court,  where  PC  fool  has  again  been 
admitted,  at  least  in  an  avowed  and  official  capacity. 

But  Archie  was  a  more  accessible  object  of  punish- 
ment than  the  malcontents  in  Scotland.  It  was  in  vain 
that  Charles  sent  down  repeated  and  severe  messages, 
blaming  the  Privy  Council,  the  Magistrates,  and  all  who 
did  not  punish  the  rioters,  and  enforce  the  reading  of  the 
Service-book.  The  resistance  to  the  measure,  which 
was  at  first  tumultuous,  and  the  work  of  the  lowest  order, 
had  now  assumed  quality  and  consistence.  More  than 
thirty  peers,  and  a  very  great  proportion  of  the  gentry  of 
Scotland,  together  with  the  greater  part  of  the  royal 
burghs,  had,  before  the  month  of  December,  agreed  not 
merely  to  oppose  the  Service-book,  but  to  act  together  in 
resistance  to  the  further  intrusions  of  Prelacy.  They 
were  kept  in  union  and  directed  by  representatives  ap- 
pointed frorh  among  themselves,  and  forming  separate 
Committees,  or,  as  they  were  termed,  Tables  or  Boards 
of  management. 

Under  the  auspices  of  these  Tables,  or  Committees,  a 
species  of  engagement,  or  declarati  >n,  was  drawn  up,  the 
principal  object  of  which  was,  the  eradication  of  Prelacy 
in  all  its  modifications,  and  the  establishment  of  Presby- 
tery on  its  purest  and  most  simple  basis.  This  engage- 
ment was  called  the  National  Covenant,  as  resembling 
those  covenants  which,  in  the  Old  Testament,  God  is  said 
to  have  made  with  the  people  of  Israel.  The  terms  of 
this  memorable  league  professed  the  Reformed  faith,  and 
abjured  the  rites  and  doctrines  of  the  Romish  Church, 
with  which  were  classed  the  newly  imposed  Liturgy  ana 
Canons.  This  Covenant,  which  had  for  its  object  to  an- 
nul all  of  Prelatic  innovation  that  James's  policy,  and  his 
son's  violence,  had  been  able  to  introduce  into  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  was  sworn  to  by  hundreds,  thousands, 
and  hundreds  of  thousands,  of  every  age  and  description, 
vowing,  with  uplifted  hands  and  weeping  eyes,  that,  wMh 
886 


98  NATIONAL   COVENANT. 

the  Divine  assistance  they  would  dedicate  life  and  for 
tune  to  maintain  the  object  of  their  solemn  engagement. 

Undoubtedly,  many  persons  who  thus  subscribed  the 
National  Covenant,  did  not  seriously  feel  any  apprehen 
sion  that  Prelacy  would  introduce  Popery,  or  that  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  in  itself  a  grievance  wnich 
the  country  of  Scotland  did  well  or  wisely  to  oppose  ;  out 
they  were  convinced,  that  in  thus  forcing  a  matter  of  con- 
science upon  a  whole  nation,  the  King  disregarded  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  his  subjects,  and  foresaw,  that  if  not 
now  withstood,  he  was  most  likely  to  make  himself  ab- 
solute master  of  their  rights  and  privileges  in  secular  as 
well  as  religious  affairs.  They  therefore  joined  in  such 
measures  as  procured  a  general  resistance  to  the  arbitra- 
ry power  so  rashly  assumed  by  King  Charles. 

Meantime,  while  the  King  negociated  and  procrastinat- 
ed, Scotland,  though  still  declaring  attachment  to  his  per- 
son, was  nearly  in  a  state  of  general  resistance. 

The  Covenanters,  as  they  began  to  be  called,  held  a 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church,  at  which  the  Marquis 
of  Hamilton  attended  as  Lord  Commissioner  for  the  King. 

This  important  meeting  was  held  at  Glasgow.  There 
all  measures  pointed  at  by  the  Covenant  were  carried 
fully  into  effect.  Episcopacy  was  abolished,  the  existing 
bishops  were  deprived  of  their  power,  and  eight  of  them 
excommunicated  for  divers  alleged  irregularities. 

The  Covenanters  took  arms  to  support  these  bold  meas- 
ures. They  recalled  to  Scotland  the  numerous  officers 
who  had  been  trained  in  the  wars  of  Germany,  and  com- 
mitted the  command  of  the  whole  to  Alexander  Lesley, 
a  veteran  general  of  skill  and  experience,  who  had  pos- 
sessed the  friendship  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  They  soon 
made  great  progress ;  for  the  castles  of  Edinburgh,  Dal- 
keith,  and  other  national  fortresses,  were  treacherously 
surrendered,  or  daringly  surprised,  by  the  Covenanters. 

King  Charles,  meantime,  was  preparing  for  the  inva- 
sion of  Scotland  with  a  powerful  army  by  land  and  sea 
The  fleet  was  commanded  by  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton 
who,  unwilling  to  commence  a  civil  war,  or,  as  some  sup 


roVEXANTERS    TAKE    UP    ARMS.  99 

posed,  not  being  on  this  occasion  peculiarly  zealous  in  the 
King's  service,  made  no  attempt  to  prosecute  the  enter- 
prise. The  fleet  lay  idle  in  the  frith  of  Forth,  while 
Charles  in  person,  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  twenty-three 
thousand  men,  gallantly  equipped  by  the  English  nobility, 
seemed  as  much  determined  on  the  subjugation  of  his 
ancient  kingdom  of  Scotland,  as  ever  any  of  the  Ed- 
w  irds  or  Henries  of  England  had  been.  But  the  Scot- 
tish Covenanters  showed  the  same  determined  spirit  of 
resistance,  which,  displayed  by  their  ancestors,  had  frus- 
trated so  many  invasions. 

A  great  degree  of  military  discipline  had  been  intro- 
duced into  their  new  levies,  considering  how  short  time 
they  had  been  on  foot.  They  lay  encamped  on  Dunse- 
lavv,  a  gently  sloping  hill,  very  favourable  for  a  military 
display.  Their  camp  was  defended  by  forty  field-pieces, 
and  their  army  consisted  of  twenty-four  or  twenty-five 
thousand  men.  The  highest  Scottish  nobles,  as  Argyle, 
Rothes,  Cassilis,  Eglinton,  Dalhousie,  Lindsay,  Loudon, 
Balcarras,  and  others,  acted  as  colonels  ;  their  captains 
were  gentlemen  of  high  rank  and  fortune  ;  and  the  infe- 
rior commissions  were  chiefly  filled  with  veteran  officers 
who  had  served  abroad.  The  utmost  order  was  observ- 
ed in  their  camp,  while  the  presence  of  numerous  clergy- 
men kept  up  the  general  enthusiasm,  and  seemed  to  give 
a  religious  character  to  the  war. 

In  this  crisis,  when  a  decisive  battle  was  to  have  been 
expected,  only  one  very  slight  action  took  place,  when  a 
few  English  cavalry,  retreating  hastily,  and  in  disorder, 
from  a  still  smaller  number  of  Scots,  seemed  to  show 
that  the  invaders  had  not  their  heart  in  the  combat.  The 
King  was  surrounded  by  many  counsellors,,  who  had  no 
'interest  to  encourage  the  war  ;  and  the  whole  body  of 
English  Puritans  considered  the  resistance  of  Scotland  as 
the  triumph  of  the  good  cause  over  Popery  and  Prelacy. 
Charles's  own  courage  seems  to  have  failed  him,  at  the 
idea  of  encountering  a  force  so  well  provided,  and  so 
willing,  as  that  of  the  Covenanters,  with  a  dispirited  ar- 
my acting  under  divided  councils.  A  treaty  was  entered 


100  TREATY    WITH    THE    COVENANTERS. 

into,  though  of  an  insecure  character.  The  King  granted 
a  declaration,  in  which,  without  confirming  the  acts  of  the 
Assembly  of  Glasgow,  which  he  would  not  acknowledge 
as  a  lawful  one,  he  agreed  that  all  matters  concerning  the 
regulation  of  church-government  should  be  left  to  a  new 
Convocation  of  the  Church. 

Such  an  agreement  could  not  be  lasting.  The  Cove- 
nanting Lords  did,  indeed,  disband  their  forces,  and  re- 
store to  the  King's  troops  the  strong  places  which  they 
had  occupied  ;  but  they  held  themselves  ready  to  take 
arms,  and  seize  upon  them  again  at  the  slightest  notice  ; 
neither  was  the  King  able  to  introduce  any  considerable 
degree  of  disunion  into  so  formidable  a  league. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  convened  ac- 
cording to  the  treaty,  failed  not  to  confirm  all  that  had 
been  done  by  their  predecessors  at  Glasgow  ;  the  Na- 
tional Covenan^  was  renewed,  and  the  whole  conclusions 
of  the  body  were  in  favour  of  pure  and  unmingled  Pres- 
bytery. The  Scottish  Parliament,  on  their  part,  de- 
manded several  privileges,  necessary,  it  was  said,  to  free- 
dom of  debate,  and  required  that  the  Estates  of  the 
Kingdom  should  be  convened  at  least  once  every  three 
years.  On  receiving  these  demands,  Charles  thought 
he  beheld  a  formed  scheme  for  undermining  his  royal 
authority,  and  prepared  to  renew  the  war. 

His  determination  involved,  however,  some  more  im- 
portant consequences  than  even  the  war  with  Scotland. 
His  private  economy  had  enabled  the  King  to  support, 
from  the  crown  lands  and  other  funds,  independent  oi 
parliamentary  grants,  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  state, 
and  he  had  been  able  even  to  sustain  the  charges  of  the 
first  army  raised  to  invade  Scotland,  without  having  re- 
course to  the  House  of  Commons.  But  his  treasures  were 
now  exhausted,  and  it  became  indispensable  to  convoke  a 
parliament,  and  obtain  from  it  a  grant  of  money  to  sup- 
Dort  the  war.  The  Parliament  met,  but  were  too  much 
occupied  by  their  own  grievances,  to  take  an  immediate 
interest  in  the  Scottish  war.  They  refused  the  supplies 
demanded.  The  King  was  obliged  to  dissolve  them,  ana 


THE    LONG    PARLIAMENT.  101 

have  recourse  to  the  aid  of  Ireland,  to  the  C  invocation 
of  the  Church,  to  compulsory  loans,  and  other  indirect 
methods  of  raising  money,  so  that  his  resources  were  ex- 
hausted by  the  effort. 

On  hearing  that  the  King  was  again  collecting  his  army, 
and  had  placed  himself  at  his  head,  the  Parliament  ol 
Scotland  resolved  on  again  assembling  theirs.  It  was  done 
with  such  facility,  and  so  speedily,  that  it  was  plain  they 
had  been,  during  the  short  suspension  of  arms,  occupied 
in  preparing  for  a  new  rupture.  They  did  not  now  wait 
till  the  King  should  invade  Scotland,  but  boldly  crossed 
the  Tweed,  entered  England,  and,  advancing  to  the  banks 
of  the  Tyne,  found  Lord  Conway  posted  at  Newburn, 
with  six  thousand  men,  having  batteries  of  cannon  in  his 
front,  and  prepared  to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  river. 
On  28th  August,  1 040,  the  battle  of  Newburn  was  fought. 
The  Scots  entered  the  ford,  girdle  deep,  and  after  silenc- 
ing the  artillery  by  their  superior  fire,  made  their  way 
across  the  river,  and  the  English  fled  with  a  speed  and 
disorder  unworthy  of  their  national  reputation. 

The  King,  surprised  at  this  defeat,  and  justly  distrust- 
ing the  faith  of  many  who  were  in  his  army  and  near  his 
person,  retreated  with  all  his  forces  into  Yorkshire  ;  and 
again,  with  more  serious  intentions  of  abiding  by  it,  com- 
menced a  negociation  with  his  insurgent  subjects.  At  the 
same  time,  to  appease  the  growing  discontent  of  the 
English  nation,  he  resolved  again  to  call  a  Parliament. 
There  were,  no  doubt,  in  the  royal  camp,  many  persons 
to  whom  the  presence  of  a  Scottish  army  was  acceptable, 
as  serving  to  overawe  the  more  violent  royalists  ;  and  the 
Scots  were  easily  induced  to  protract  their  stay,  when  it 
was  proposed  to  them  to  receive  pay  and  provisions  at  the 
expense  of  England. 

The  meeting  of  that  celebrated  body,  called,  in  English 
history,  the  Long  Parliament,  took  place  on  3d  Novem- 
ber, 1640.  The  majority  of  the  members  were  disaf- 
fected with  the  King's  government,  on  account  of  his 
severity  in  matters  of  religion,  and  his  tendency  to  despot- 


102  CONCESSIONS    OF    CHARLES. 

ism  in  state  affairs.  These  malcontents  formed  a  strong 
party,  determined  to  diminish  the  royal  authority,  and  re- 
duce, if  they  did  not  destroy,  the  hierarchy  of  the  church. 
The  negociations  for  peace  being  transferred  from  Kippon 
to  London,  the  presence  of  the  Scottish  commissioners 
was  highly  acceptable  to  those  statesmen  who  opposed 
the  King,  and  the  preaching  of  the  clergymen  by  whom 
they  were  accompanied,  appeared  equally  instructive  to 
the  citizens  of  London  and  their  wives. 

In  this  favourable  situation,  and  completely  successful 
over  the  royal  will,  (for  Charles  1.  could  not  propose  to 
contend  at  once  with  the  English  Parliament  and  with  the 
Scottish  army,)  the  peremptory  demands  of  the  Scots 
were  neither  light,  nor  easily  gratified.  They  required 
that  the  King  should  confirm  every  act  of  the  Scottish 
Convention  of  Estates  with  whom  he  had  been  at  war, 
recall  all  the  proclamations  which  he  had  sent  out  against 
them,  place  the  fortresses  of  Scotland  in  the  hands  of  such 
officers  as  the  Convention  should  approve  of,  pay  all  the 
expenses  of  the  war,  and,  last  and  bitterest,  they  stipu- 
lated, that  those  of  the  King's  counsellors  who  had  advis- 
ed the  late  hostilities,  should  be  punished  as  incendiaries. 
VVtiile  the  Scots  were  discussing  these  severe  conditions, 
they  remained  in  their  quarters  much  at  their  own  ease, 
overawing  by  their  presence  the  King,  and  those  who 
might  be  disposed  to  join  him,  and  affording  to  the  oppo 
sition  party  in  the  English  Parliament  an  opportunity  ol 
obtaining  redress  for  the  grievances  of  which  they,  in 
their  turn,  complained. 

The  King,  thus  circumstanced,  was  compelled  to  give 
way.  The  oppressive  courts  in  which  arbitrary  proceed- 
ings had  taken  place,  were  abolished  ;  every  species  of 
contrivance  by  which  the  King  had  endeavoured  to  levy 
money  without  consent  of  Parliament,  a  subject  on  which 
the  people  of  England  were  justly  jealous,  was  declared 
unlawful ;  and  it  was  provided,  that  Parliaments  should 
be  summoned  every  three  years. 

Thus  the  power  of  the  King  was  reduced  within  the 
onujidaiies  of  the  constitution  :  but  the  Parliament  were 


CHARLESS  SECOND  VISIT  TO  SCOTLAND.     I0b 

not  satisfied  with  this  general  redress  of  grievances,  though 
including  all  that  had  hitherto  been  openly  complained  of. 
A  strong  party  among  the  members  was  determined  to  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy 
in  England  as  well  as  in  Scotland  ;  and  many,  who  did 
not  aim  at  that  favourite  point,  entertained  fears,  that  it 
the  King  were  left  in  possession  of  such  powers  as  the 
constitution  allowed  him,  he  would  find  means  of  re- 
establishing and  perpetuating  the  grievances  which,  for  the 
time,  he  had  consented  to  abolish. 

Gratified  with  a  donation  of  three  hundred  thousand 
pounds,  given  under  the  delicate  name  of  brotherly  as- 
sistance, the  Scottish  army  at  length  retired  homeward, 
and  left  the  King  and  Parliament  of  England  to  settle  their 
own  affairs.  The  troops  were  scarcely  returned  to  Scot- 
land and  disbanded,  when  Charles  proposed  to  himself  a 
visit  to  his  native  kingdom.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  purpose  of  this  royal  progress  was  to  inquire 
closely  into  the  causes  which  had  enabled  the  Scottish 
nation,  usually  divided  into  factions  and  quarrels,  to  act 
with  such  unanimity,  and  to  try  whether  it  might  not  be 
possible  for  the  King  to  attach  to  his  royal  interest  and 
person  some  of  the  principal  leaders,  and  thus  form  a 
party  who  might  not  only  prevent  his  English  dominions 
from  being  again  invaded  by  an  army  from  Scotland,  but 
might  be  disposed  to  serve  him,  in  case  he  should  come 
to  an  open  rupture  with  his  English  Parliament.  For  this 
purpose  he  dispensed  dignities  and  gifts  in  Scotland  with 
an  unsparing  hand  ;  made  General  Lesley  Earl  of  Leven, 
raised  the  Lords  Loudon  and  Lindsay  to  the  same  rank, 
and  received  into  his  administration  several  nobles  who 
had  been  active  in  the  late  invasion  of  England.  On 
most  of  these  persons,  the  King's  benefits  produced  little 
effect.  They  considered  him  only  as  giving  what,  if  he 
had  dared,  iie  would  have  withheld.  But  Charles  made 
a  convert  to  his  interests  of  one  nobleman,  whose  char- 
acter and  actions  have  rendered  him  a  memorable  person 
in  Scottish  history. 


104  IMPRISONMENT    OF    MONTROSE. 

This  was  James  Graham,  Earl  of  Montrose  ;  a  man  of 
nigh  genius,  glowing  with  the  ambition  which  prompts 
great  actions,  and  conscious  of  courage  and  talents  which 
enabled  him  to  aspire  to  much  by  small  and  inadequate 
means.  He  was  a  poet  and  scholar,  deeply  skilled  in  the 
art  of  war,  and  possessed  of  a  strength  of  constitution  and 
activity  of  mind,  by  which  he  could  sustain  every  hard- 
ship, and  find  a  remedy  in  every  reverse  of  fortune.  It 
was  remarked  of  him  by  Cardinal  du  Retz,  an  unques- 
tionable judge,  that  he  resembled  more  nearly  than  any 
man  of  his  age  those  great  heroes,  whose  names  and  his- 
tory are  handed  down  to  us  by  the  Greek  and  Roman 
historians.  As  a  qualification  to  this  high  praise,  it  must 
be  added,  that  Montrose's  courage  sometimes  approached 
to  rashness,  and  that  some  of  his  actions  arose  more  from 
the  dictates  of  private  revenge,  than  became  his  nobler 
qualities. 

The  young  Earl  had  attended  the  court  of  Charles 
when  he  came  home  from  his  travels,  but  not  meeting  with 
the  attention  or  distinction  which  he  was  conscious  of  de- 
serving, he  withdrew  into  Scotland,  and  took  a  zealous 
share  in  forming  and  forwarding  the  National  Covenant. 
A  man  of  such  talent  could  not  fail  to  be  employed  and 
distinguished.  Montrose  was  sent  by  the  confederated 
Lords  of  the  Covenant  to  chastise  the  prelatic  town  of 
Aberdeen,  and  to  disperse  the  Gordons,  who  were  taking 
arms  for  the  King  under  the  Marquis  of  Huntly,  and  suc- 
^eeded  in  both  commissions.  At  the  battle  of  Newburn, 
he  was  the  first  man  who  forded  the  Tyne.  He  passed 
alone  under  the  fire  of  the  English,  to  ascertain  the  depth 
of  the  water,  and  returned  to  lead  over  the  regiment  which 
he  commanded.  Notwithstanding  these  services  to  the 
cause  of  the  Covenant,  Montrose  had  the  mortification  to 
see  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  (the  ancient  feudal  enemy  of  his 
house,)  was  preferred  to  him  by  the  heads  of  the  party, 
and  chiefly  by  the  clergy.  There  was  something  in  the 
fiery  ambition,  and  unyielding  purpose  of  Montrose,  which 
startled  inferior  minds  ;  while  Argyle,  dark,  close,  and 
crafty, — a  man  well  qualified  to  aflect  a  complete  de\otion 


THE    INCIDENT.  ij 

to  the  ends  of  others,  when  he  was,  in  fact,  bent  on  for- 
warding his  own, — stooped  lower  to  court  popularity,  and 
was  more  successful  in  gaining  it. 

The  King  had  long  observed  that  Montrose  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  party  to  which  he  had  hitherto  adhered 
and  found  no  difficulty  in  engaging  his  services  for  the 
future  in  the  royal  cause.  The  noble  convert  set  so  ac- 
tively about  inducing  others  to  follow  his  example,  that 
even  during  the  course  of  the  treaty  at  Rippon,  he  had 
procured  the  subscription  of  nineteen  noblemen  to  a  bond, 
engaging  themselves  to  unite  in  support  of  Charles.  This 
act  of  defection  being  discovered  by  the  Covenanters, 
Montrose  was  imprisoned  ;  and  the  King,  on  coming  to 
Scotland,  had  the  mortification  to  find  himself  deprived 
of  the  assistance  of  this  invaluable  adherent. 

Montrose  contrived,  however,  to  communicate  with  the 
King  from  his  prison  in  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  and 
disclosed  so  many  circumstances  respecting  the  purposes 
of  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  and  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  that 
Charles  had  resolved  to  arrest  them  both  at  one  moment, 
and  had  assembled  soldiers  for  that  purpose.  They  es- 
caped, however,  and  retired  to  their  houses,  where  they 
could  not  have  been  seized,  but  by  open  violence,  and  at 
the  risk  of  a  civil  war.  These  noblemen  were  recalled 
to  Court ;  and  to  show  that  the  King's  confidence  in  them 
was  unchanged,  Argyle  v/as  raised  to  the  rank  of  Marquis 
This  obscure  affair  was  called  the  Incident ;  it  was  never 
well  explained  ;  it  excited  much  suspicion  of  the  King's 
purposes  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  aggravated 
the  disinclination  of  the  English  Parliament  to  leave  his 
royal  power  on  the  present  unreduced  footing. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Montrose's  disclosures  to 
the  King  concerned  the  private  correspondence  which 
passed  between  the  Scottish  Covenanters  and  the  opposi- 
tion party  in  the  Parliament  of  England,  and  which  Charles 
might  hope  to  convert  into  an  accusation  of  high  treason 
against  both.  But  as  he  did  not  feel  that  he  possessed  a 
party  in  Scotland  strong  enough  to  contend  with  the  great 
majority  of  the  nobles  of  that  country,  he  judged  it  bt^t  to 


10(3          CHARLES'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND. 

pass  over  all  further  notice  of  the  Incident  for  the  uiae, 
and  to  leave  Scotland  at  least  under  the  outward  appeal- 
ance  of  mutual  concord.  He  was  formally  congratulated 
on  departing  a  contented  King  from  a  contented  people — 
a  state  of  things,  which  did  not  last  long. 

It  was,  indeed,  impossible  that  Scotland  should  remain 
long  tranquil,  while  England,  with  whom  she  was  now  so 
closely  connected,  was  in  such  dreadful  disorder.  The 
King  had  no  sooner  returned  from  Scotland,  than  the 
quarrel  hetwixt  him  and  his  Parliament  was  renewed  with 
more  violence  than  ever.  If  either  party  could  have  re- 
posed confidence  in  the  other's  sincerity,  the  concession? 
made  by  the  King  were  such  as  ought  to  have  gratified 
the  Parliament.  But  the  strongest  suspicions  were  en- 
tertained by  the  prevailing  party,  that  the  King  considered 
the  grants  which  he  had  made,  as  having  been  extorted 
from  him  by  violence,  and  that  he  retained  the  steady 
purpose  of  reassuming  the  obnoxious  and  arbitrary  power 
of  which  he  had  been  deprived  for  a  season,  but  which 
he  still  considered  as  part  of  his  royal  right.  They  there- 
fore resolved  not  to  quit  the  ascendency  which  they  had 
attained,  until  they  had  deprived  the  King  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  his  remaining  power,  although  bestowed  on  him 
by  the  constitution,  that  they  might  thus  prevent  his  em- 
ploying it  for  the  recovery  of  those  arbitrary  privileges 
which  had  been  usurped  by  the  throne  during  the  reign 
of  the  Tudors. 

While  the  Parliamentary  leaders  argued  thus,  the  King, 
on  his  side,  complained  that  no  concession,  however  large, 
was  able  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  his  discontented  sub- 
jects. "  He  had  already,"  he  urged,  "  resigned  all  the 
points  which  had  been  disputed  between  them,"  and  his 
partisans  were  alarmed  with  the  idea  that  it  was  the  pur- 
pose of  Parliament  altogether  to  abrogate  the  royal  au- 
ihority,  and,  probably,  to  depose  the  reigning  King. 

On  the  return  of  Charles  to  London,  the  Parliarnenl 
greeted  him  with  a  remonstrance,  in  which  he  was  up- 
braided with  all  the  real  and  supposed  errors  of  his  reign 
At  the  same  time,  a  general  disposition  to  tumult  showed 


KENEWED    DEMANDS    OF    PARLIAMENT.          107 

itself  throughout  the  City.  Great  mobs  of  apprentices 
and  citizens,  not  always  of  the  lowest  rank,  came  in  tumult 
to  Winchester,  under  the  pretence  of  petitioning  the 
Houses  of  Parliament ;  and  as  they  passed  Whitehall, 
they  insulted,  with  loud  shouts,  the  guards  and  servants 
of  the  King.  The  parties  soon  came  to  blows,  and  blood 
was  spilt  between  them. 

Party  names,  too,  were  assumed,  to  distinguish  the 
friends  of  the  King  from  those  who  favoured  the  Parlia- 
ment. The  former  were  chiefly  gay  young  men,  who, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  times,  wore  showy  dresses, 
and  cultivated  the  growth  of  long  hair,  which,  arranged  in 
ringlets,  fell  over  their  shoulders.  They  were  called 
Cavaliers.  In  distinction,  those  who  adhered  to  the  Par- 
liament, assumed  in  their  garb  and  deportment,  a  serious- 
ness and  gravity  which  rejected  all  ornament ;  they  wore 
their  hair,  in  particular,  cropped  short  around  the  head, 
and  thence  gained  the  name  of  Round-heads. 

But  it  was  the  difference  in  their  ideas  of  religion,  or 
rather  of  church  government,  which  chiefly  widened  the 
division  betwixt  the  two  parties.  The  King  had  been  bred 
up  to  consider  the  preservation  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  her  hierarchy,  as  a  sacred  point  of  duty.  The  Pres- 
byterian system,  on  the  contrary,  was  espoused  by  a  large 
proportion  of  the  Parliament  ;  and  they  were,  for  the 
time,  seconded  by  the  other  numerous  classes  of  Dissent- 
ers, all  of  whom  desired  to  see  the  destruction  of  the 
Church  of  England,  however  unwilling  they  might  be  that 
a  Presbyterian  Church  government  should  be  set  up  in 
its  stead.  The  enemies  of  the  Church  of  England  greatly 
predominating  within  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  the  lords 
spiritual,  or  bishops,  were  finally  expelled  from  their  seats 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  their  removal  was  celebrated 
as  a  triumph  by  the  London  citizens. 

While  matters  were  in  this  state,  the  King  committed 
a  great,  imprudence.  Having  conceived  that  he  had  ac- 
quired from  Montrose's  discovery,  or  otherwise,  certain 
information  that  five  of  the  leading  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons  had  been  guilty  of  communicating  with  »he 
5* 


10$ 


CIVIL    WAR    IN    ENGLAND. 


Scots  when  in  arms,  which  might  authorize  a  charge  o/ 
high  treason,  he  formed  the  highly  rash  and  culpable  in- 
tention of  going  to  the  House  of  Commons  in  person,  with 
an  armed  train  of  attendants,  and  causing  the  accused 
members  to  be  arrested.  By  this  ill-advised  measure, 
Charles  doubtless  expected  to  strike  terror  into  the  oppo- 
site party ;  but  it  proved  altogether  ineffectual.  The  five 
members  had  received  private  information  of  the  blow  to 
be  aimed  at  them,  and  had  fled  into  the  city,  where  they 
found  numbers  willing  to  conceal  and  defend  them.  The 
King,  by  his  visit  to  the  House  of  Commons,  only  showed 
that  he  could  stoop  to  act  almost  in  the  capacity  of  a  com- 
mon constable,  or  catchpoll  ;  and  that  he  disregarded  the 
respect  due  to  the  representatives  of  the  British  people, 
in  meditating  such  an  arrest  in  the  presence  of  that  body. 

After  this  step  on  the  part  of  the  King,  every  chance 
of  reconciliation  seemed  at  an  end.  The  Commons  re- 
jected all  amicable  proposals,  unless  the  King  would  sur- 
render to  them  the  command  of  the  militia  ;  and  that 
would  have  been  equivalent  to  laying  his  crown  at  their 
feet.  The  King  refused  to  surrender  the  command  of  the 
militia,  even  for  an  instant  ;  and  both  parties  prepared  to 
take  up  arms.  Charles  left  London,  where  the  power  of 
the  Parliament  was  predominant,  assembled  what  friends 
he  could  gather  at  Nottingham,  and  hoisted  the  royal 
standard  there,  as  the  signal  of  civil  war,  on  25th  Au- 
gust, 1642. 

The  hostilities  which  ensued,  over  almost  all  England, 
were  of  a  singular  character.  Long  accustomed  to  peace, 
the  English  had  but  little  knowledge  of  the  art  of  war. 
The  friends  of  the  contending  parties  assembled  their 
followers,  and  marched  against  each  other,  without  much 
idea  of  taking  strong  positions,  or  availing  themselves  of 
able  manoeuvres,  but  with  the  simple  and  downright  pur- 
pose of  meeting,  fighting  with,  and  defeating  those  who 
were  in  arms  on  the  other  side.  These  battles  were  con- 
'ested  with  great  manhood  and  gallantry,  but  with  little 
military  skill  or  discipline.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing, 
for  one  wing  or  division  of  the  contending  armie?  when 


CIVIL    WAR    IN    ENGLAND.  109 

they  found  themselves  victorious  over  the  body  opposed 
to  them,  to  amuse  themselves  with  chasing  the  vanquished 
party  for  leagues  oiFthe  field  of  battle,  where  the  victory 
was  in  the  meanwhile  lost  for  want  of  their  support. 
This  repeatedly  happened  through  the  precipitation  of  the 
King's  cavalry  ;  a  fine  body  -of  men,  consisting  of  the 
flower  of  the  English  nobility  and  gentry  ;  but  as  ungov- 
ernable as  they  were  brave,  and  usually  commanded  by 
Prince  Rupert,  the  King's  nephew,  a  young  man  of  fiery 
courage,  not  gifted  with  prudence  corresponding  to  his 
bravery  and  activity. 

In  these  unhappy  civil  contentions,  the  ancient  nobility 
and  gentry  of  England  were  chiefly  disposed  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  King  ;  and  the  farmers  and  cultivators  of  the 
soil  followed  them  as  their  natural  leaders.  The  cause 
of  the  Parliament  was  supported  by  London  with  all  its 
wealth  and  its  numbers,  and  by  the  other  large  towns, 
seaports,  and  manufacturing  districts,  throughout  the 
country.  At  the  commencement  of  the  war,  the  Parlia- 
ment, being  in  possession  of  most  of  the  fortified  places 
in  England,  with  the  magazines  of  arms  and  ammunition 
which  they  contained,  having  also  numbers  of  men  pre- 
pared to  obey  their  summons,  and  with  power  to  raise 
large  sums  of  money  to  pay  them,  seemed  to  possess  great 
advantages  over  the  party  of  Charles.  But  the  gallantry 
of  the  King's  followers  was  able  to  restore  the  balance, 
and  proposals  were  trade  for  peace  on  equal  terms,  which, 
had  all  parties  been  as  sincere  in  seeking  it,  as  the  good 
and  wise  of  each  side  certainly  were,  might  then  have 
been  satisfactorily  concluded. 

A  treaty  was  set  on  foot  at  Oxford  in  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1643,  and  the  Scottish  Parliament  sent  to  Eng- 
land a  committee  of  the  persons  employed  as  conserva- 
tors of  the  peace  between  the  kingdoms,  to  negociate,  ii 
possible,  a  pacification  between  the  King  and  his  Parlia- 
ment, honourable  for  the  crown,  satisfactory  for  the  liberty 
of  the  subject,  and  secure  for  both.  But  the  King  listen- 
ed to  the  warmer  and  more  passionate  counsellors,  who 


110  NKfioTIATION    OF    THE    ENGLISH 

pointed  out  to  him  that  the  Scots  would,  to  a  certainty, 
do  their  utmost  to  root  out  Prelacy  in  a  system  of  accom- 
modation which  they  might  assist  in  framing  ;  and  that 
having,  in  fact,  been  the  first  who  had  set  the  example  of 
a  successful  resistance  to  the  Crown,  they  could  not  now 
be  expected  to  act  sincerely  in  any  negotiation  in  which 
its  interests  were  concerned.  The  result  was,  that  the 
Scottish  Commissioners,  finding  themselves  treated  with 
coldness  by  the  King,  and  with  menace  and  scorn  by  the 
more  vehement  of  his  followers,  left  Oxford  still  more 
displeased  with  the  Royal  cause  than  when  they  had 
come  thither. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

.#  Scottish  Army  sent  to  assist  that  of  the  English  Par- 
liament— Montrose  takes  advantage  of  their  absence, 
and,  being  joined  by  a  Body  of  Irishmen,  raises  the 
Royal  Standard  in  Scotland — Battle  of  Tippermnir, 
and  Surrender  of  Perth — Affair  at  the  Bridge  of  Dee, 
and  Sack  of  Perth — Close  of  the  Campaign. 

IN  1043,  when  the  advance  of  spring  permitted  the 
resumption  of  hostilities,  it  was  found  that  the  state  of  the 
King's  party  was  decidedly  superior  to  that  of  the  Par- 
liament, and  it  was  believed  that  the  event  of  the  war 
would  be  decided  in  the  Royal  favour,  could  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Scots  be  obtained.  The  King  privately  made 
great  offers  to  the  Scottish  nation,  to  induce  them  to  dt.- 
clare  in  his  favour,  or  at  least  remain  neuter  in  the  strug- 
gle. He  called  upon  them  to  remember  that  he  had 
gratified  all  their  wishes,  without  exception,  and  reminded 
them  that  the  late  peace  between  England  and  Scotland 
provided,  that  neither  country  should  declare  war  against 
the  other  without  due  provocation,  and  the  consent  ol 
Parliament.  But  the  Scottish  Convention  of  Estates 
were  sensible,  that  if  they  should  assist  the  King  to  con- 


PARLIAMENT    WITH    THE    SCOTS.  Ill 

quer  the  English  Parliament,  for  imitating  their  example 
of  insurrection,  it  would  be  naturally  followed  by  their 
undergoing  punishment  themselves  for  the  example  which 
they  had  set.  They  feared  for  the  Presbyterian  system, 
— some  of  them,  no  doubt,  feared  for  themselves, — and 
all  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  King's  proposals. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  deputation  from  Parliament  press- 
ed upon  the  Scottish  Convention  another  clause  in  the 
treaty  of  peace  made  in  1641,  namely,  that  the  Parlia- 
ment of  either  country  should  send  aid  to  each  other  to 
repel  invasion  or  suppress  internal  disturbances.  In  com- 
pliance with  thesie  articles,  the  English  Commissioners 
desired  the  assistance  of  a  body  of  Scottish  auxiliaries. 
The  country  being  at  this  time  filled  with  disbanded  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  who  were  eager  for  employment,  the 
opportunity  arid  the  invitation  were  extremely  tempting 
to  them,  for  they  remembered  the  free-quarters  and  gooc 
pay  which  they  had  enjoyed  while  in  England.  Never- 
theless, the  leading  members  of  the  Convention  of  Estates 
were  aware,  that  to  embrace  the  party  of  the  Parliament 
of  England,  and  despatch  to  their  assistance  a  large  body 
of  auxiliary  forces,  selected,  as  they  must  be,  from  their 
best  levies,  would-  necessarily  expose  their  authority  in 
Scotland  to  considerable  danger  ;  for  the  King's  friends 
who  had  joined  in  the  bond  with  Montrose,  were  men  of 
power  and  influence,  and  having  the  will,  only  waited  for 
the  opportunity,  to  act  in  his  behalf ;  .and  might  raise, 
perhaps  a  formidable  insurrection  in  Scotland  itself,  when 
relieved  from  the  superiority  of  force  which  at  present 
was  so  great  on  the  side  of  the  Convention.  But  the 
English  Commissioners  held  out  a  bait  which  the  Con- 
vention found  it  impossible  to  resist. 

From  the  success  which  the  ruling  party  had  experi- 
enced in  establishing  the  Church  of  Scotland  on  a  Pres- 
byterian model,  and  from  the  great  influence  which  the 
clergy  of  that  persuasion  had  acquired  in  the  councils  oi 
the  nation  by  the  late  course  of  events,  they  were  induced 
to  form  the  ambitious  desire  of  totally  destroying  the 
hierarchy  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  of  introducing 


»l2  SCOTTISH    AHMY 

into  that  kingdom  a  form  of  church  government  on  the 
Presbyterian  model.  To  accomplish  this  favourite  object, 
the  leading  Presbyterians  in  Scotland  were  willing  to  run 
every  risk,  and  to  make  every  exertion. 

The  Commissioners  of  England  were  most  ready  to 
join  with  this  idea  of  destroying  Prelacy  ;  but  they  knew 
that  the  English  Parliament  party  were  greatly  divided 
among  themselves  on  the  subject  of  substituting  the  Pres- 
byterian system  in  its  place.  The  whole  body  of  Secta- 
rians, or  Independents,  were  totally  opposed  to  the  intro- 
duction of  any  national  church  government  whatever,  and 
were  averse  to  that  of  Presbytery  in  particular,  the  Scottish 
clergy  having  in  their  opinion,  shown  themselves  disposed 
to  be  as  absolute  as  the  bishops  had  been  while  in  power. 
But,  with  a  crafty  policy,  the  Commissioners  conducted 
the  negotiation  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  the  Scottish 
Convention  reason  to  believe,  that  they  would  accomplish 
their  favourite  desire  of  seeing  the  system  which  they  so 
much  admired,  acknowledged  and  adopted  in  England, 
while,  in  fact,  they  bound  their  constituents,  the  English 
Parliament,  to  nothing  specific  on  the  subject. 

The  Commissioners  proposed  to  join  with  the  Scottish 
nation  in  a  new  edition  of  the  Covenant",  which  had  before 
proved  such  a  happy  bond  of  union  among  the  Scots 
themselves.  In  this  new  bond  of  religious  association, 
which  was  called  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  it  was 
provided,  that  the  church  government  of  Scotland  should 
be  supported  and  maintained  on  its  present  footing  ;  but 
with  regard  to  England,  the  agreement  was  expressed 
with  studied  ambiguity — the  religious  system  of  England, 
it  was  provided,  should  be  reformed  "  according  to  the 
word  of  God,  and  the  example  of  the  best  reformed 
churches."  The  Scots,  usually  more  cautious  in  their 
transactions,  never  allowed  themselves  to  doubt  for  a  mo- 
ment, that  the  rule  and  example  to  be  adopted  under  this 
clause  must  necessarily  be  that  of  Presbytery,  and  under 
his  conviction,  both  the  nobles  and  the  clergy  hastened 
with  raptures,  and  even  with  tears  of  joy,  to  subscribe  the 
proposed  League.  But  several  of  the  English  Commis- 


E1VTKRS    ENGLAND.  113 

sioners  enjoyed  in  secret  the  reserved  newer  of  interpret- 
ing the  clause  otherwise  and  cf  explaining  tlie  phrase  in 
a  "eose  applicable  to  their  own  ideas  of  emancipation  from 
church  government  of  every  kind. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  sworn  to  in 
Scotland  with  general  acclamation,  and  was  received  and 
adopted  by  the  English  Parliament  with  the  same  applause, 
all  discussion  of  the  dubious  article  being  cautiously 
avoided.  The  Scots  proceeded,  with  eager  haste,  to  send 
to  the  assistance  of  the  Parliament  of  England  a  well- 
disciplined  arrny  of  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  men, 
under  the  command  of  Alexander  Lesley,  Earl  of  Leven. 
An  officer  of  character,  named  Baillie,  was  Leven's  Lieu- 
tenant, and  David  Lesley,  a  man  of  greater  military  talents 
than  either,  was  his  Major-General.  Their  presence 
contributed  greatly  to  a  decisive  victory  which  the  Par- 
liament forces  gained  at  Marston  Moor  ;  and  indeed,  as 
was  to  be  expected  from  their  numbers  and  discipline, 
quickly  served  to  give  that  party  the  preponderance  in 
the  field. 

But  while  the  Scottish  auxiliaries  were  actively  serving 
the  common  cause  of  the  Parliament  in  England,  the 
courageous  and  romantic  enterprise  of  the  Earl  of  Mon- 
trose  broke  out  in  a  train  of  success,  which  threatened  to 
throw  Scotland  itself  into  the  hands  of  the  King  and  his 
friends.  This  nobleman's  bold  genius,  when  the  royalist 
party  in  Scotland  seemed  totally  crushed  and  dispersed, 
devised  the  means  of  assembling  them  together,  and  of 
menacing  the  Convention  of  Estates  with  the  destruction  of 
their  power  at  home,  even  at  the  moment  when  they  hoped 
to  establish  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  both  kingdoms, 
by  the  success  of  the  army  which  they  had  despatched 
into  England. 

After  obtaining  his  liberation  from  imprisonment,  Mon- 
trose  had  repaired  to  England,  and  sugges'ed  to  the  King 
a  plan  of  operations  to  be  executed  by  a  body  of  Irish, 
to  be  despatched  by  the  Earl  of  Antrim  from  the  counfy 
of  Ulster,  and  landed  in  the  West  Highlands.  \V°  h  these 
887 


114 


STATE    OF    PARTIES 


ne  proposed  to  unite  a  force  collected  from  the  Highland 
clans,  who  were  disinclined  to  the  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment, great  enemies  to  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  and  attached 
to  the  Royal  cause,  because  they  regarded  the  King  as  a 
chieftain  whose  clan  was  in  rebellion  against  him,  and 
who,  therefore,  deserved  the  support  of  every  faithful 
mountaineer.  The  promise  of  pay,  to  which  they  had 
never  been  accustomed,  and  the  certainty  of  booty,  would, 
as  Montrose  judiciously  calculated,  readily  bring  many 
chieftains  and  clans  to  the  Royal  standard.  The  power- 
ful family  of  the  Gordons,  in  Aberdeenshire,  who,  be- 
sides enjoying  almost  princely  authority  over  the  numerous 
gentlemen  of  their  family,  had  extensive  influence  among 
the  mountain  tribes  in  their  neighbourhood,  or,  in  the 
Scottish  phrase,  could  command  a  great  Highland  follow- 
ing, might  also  be  reckoned  upon  with  certainty  ;  as  they 
had  been  repeatedly  in  arms  for  the  King,  had  not  been 
put  down  without  a  stout  resistance,  and  were  still  warmly 
disposed  towards  the  Royal  cause.  The  support  of  many 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  in  the  north,  might  also  be  re- 
garded as  probable,  should  Montrose  be  able  to  collect  a 
considerable  force.  The  Episcopal  establishment,  so 
odious  to  the  lords  and  barons  of  the  southern  and  western 
parts  of  Scotland,  was  popular  in  the  north.  The  northern 
barons  were  displeased  with  the  extreme  strictness  of  the 
Presbyterian  clergy,  and  dissatisfied  with  the  power  they 
had  often  assumed  of  interfering  with  the  domestic  ar- 
rangement of  families,  under  pretext  of  maintaining  moral 
discipline.  Finally,  there  were  in  all  parts  of  Scotland 
active  and  daring  men  disappointed  of  obtaining  employ- 
ment or  preferment  under  the  existing  government,  and 
therefore  willing  to  join  in  any  enterprise,  however 
desperate,  which  promised  a  change. 

All  this  was  known  to  the  Convention  of  Estates;  but 
they  had  not  fully  estimated  the  magnitude  of  the  danger. 
Montrose's  personal  talents  were,  to  a  certain  extent,  ad- 
mitted ;  but  ordinary  men  were  incapable  of  estimating 
such  a  character  as  his  ;  and  he  was  generally  esteemed 
A  vain,  though  able  young  man,  whose  remarkable  ambi 


IN    SCOTLAND.  1 15 

tion  was  capable  of  urging  him  into  undertakings  which 
were  impracticable.  The  great  power  of  the  Earl  of 
ArgyJe  was  relied  upon  as  a  sufficient  safeguard  against 
any  attempt  on  the  West  Highlands,  and  his  numerous, 
brave,  and  powerful  clan  had  long  kept  all  the  tribes  oi 
that  country  in  a  species  of  awe,  if  not  subjection. 

But  the  character  of  the  Highlanders  was  estimated 
according  to  a  sort  of  calculation,  which  time  had  ren- 
dered very  erroneous.  In  the  former  days  of  Scotland, 
when  the  Lowlands  were  inhabited  by  men  as  brave,  and 
much  better  armed  and  disciplined  than  the  mountaineers, 
the  latter  had  indeed  often  shown  themselves  alert  as  light 
troops,  unwearied  in  predatory  excursions;  but  had  been 
generally,  from  their  tumultuary  charge,  liable  to  defeat, 
either  from  a  steady  body  of  spearmen,  who  received  their 
onset  with  lowered  lances,  or  from  an  attack  of  the  feudal 
chivalry  of  the  Lowlands,  completely  armed  and  well 
mounted.  At  Harlaw,  Corrichie,  Glenlivat,  and  on  many 
other  occasions,  the  irregular  forces  of  the  Highlands  had 
been  defeated  by  an  inferior  number  of  their  Lowland 
opponents. 

These  recollections  might  lead  the  governors  of  Scot- 
land, during  the  civil  war,  to  hold  a  Highland  army  in  low 
estimation.  But  it  was  without  considering  that  half  a 
century  of  uninterrupted  peace  had  rendered  the  Low- 
landers  much  more  unwarlike,  while  the  Highlander,  who 
always  went  armed,  was  familiar  with  the  use  of  weapons 
which  he  constantly  wore,  and  far  superior  in  that  partic- 
ular, as  well  as  in  the  alacrity  and  love  of  fight,  to  the 
Lowland  peasant,  called  from  the  peaceful  occupations  oi 
the  farm,  and  only  prepared,  by  a  few  days'  drilling,  to 
encounter  the  unwonted  dangers  of  a  field  of  battle.  The 
burghers,  who  made  a  formidable  part  of  the  array  of  the 
Scottish  army  in  former  times,  were  now  still  more  un- 
warlike than  the  peasant,  being  not  only  without  skill  in 
arms  and  familiarity  with  danger,  but  also  the  personal 
habits  of  exercise  which  the  rustic  might  have  preserved. 
This  great  and  essential  difference  between  the  High- 
lander and  Lowlander  of  modern  days,  could  scarcely  be 


I  IH  BODY    OF    IRISH    SENT    TO    TUB 

estimated  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  c'/itury,  the 
causes  by  which  it  was  brought  about  being  recent,  and 
attracting  little  attention. 

Montrose's  first  plan  was  to  collect  a  body  of  Royalist 
horse  on  the  frontiers  of  England,  to  burst  at  once  into 
the  centre  of  Scotland  at  their  head,  and  force  his  way  to 
Stirling,  where  a  body  of  cavaliers  had  promised  to  as- 
semble and  join  him.  The  expedition  was  disconcerted 
by  a  sort  of  mutiny  among  the  English  horse  who  had 
joined  him  ;  in  consequence  of  which,  Montrose  disband- 
ed his  handful  of  followers,  and  exhorted  them  to  make 
their  way  to  the  King,  or  to  join  the  nearest  body  of  men 
in  arms  for  the  Royal  cause,  while  he  himself  adopted  a 
new  and  more  desperate  plan.  He  took  with  him  only 
two  friends,  and  disguised  himself  as  the  groom  of  one  of 
them,  whom  he  followed,  ill  mounted  and  worse  dressed, 
and  leading  a  spare  horse.  They  called  themselves  gen- 
tlemen belonging  to  Leven's  army  ;  for,  of  course,  if 
Montrose  had  been  discovered  by  the  Covenanting  party, 
a  rigorous  captivity  was  the  least  he  might  expect.  At 
one  time  he  seemed  on  the  point  of  being  detected  ;  a 
straggling  soldier  passed  his  two  companions,  and  coming 
up  to  the  Earl  of  Montrose,  saluted  him  respectfully  by 
his  name  and  title.  Montrose  tried  to  persuade  him  that 
he  was  mistaken;  but  the  man  persisted, though  with  the 
utmost  respect  and  humility  of  deportment.  "  Do  I  not 
know  my  noble  Lord  of  Montrose  ?"  he  said  ;  "  But  go 
your  way,  and  God  be  with  you."  The  circumstance 
alarmed  Montrose  and  his  companions  ;  but  the  poor  fel- 
low was  faithful,  and  never  betrayed  his  old  leader. 

In  this  disguise  he  reached  the  verge  of  the  Highlands, 
and  lay  concealed  in  the  house  of  his  relation,  Graham  of 
Inchbraco,  and  afterwards,  for  still  greater  safety,  in  an 
obscure  hut  on  the  Highland  frontier,  while  he  despatch- 
ed spies  in  every  direction,  to  bring  him  intelligence  of 
the  state  of  the  Royalist  party.  Bad  news  came  from  all 
quarters.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly  had  taken  arms  hastily 
and  imprudently,  and  had  been  defeated  and  compelled 
to  fly ;  while  Gordon  of  Haddow,  one  of  the  most  active 


ASSISTANCE    OF    MONTKOSE.  117 

and  gallant  of  the  name,  became  prisoner  to  the  Cove- 
nanters, and,  to  strike  terror  into  the  rest  of  the  clan,  was 
publicly  executed  by  order  of  the  Scottish  Parliament. 

Montrose's  spirit  was  not  to  be  broken  even  by  this 
disappointment ;  and,  while  anxiously  waiting  further  in- 
tell'gence,  an  indistinct  rumour  reached  him  that  a  body 
of  foldiers  from  Ireland  had  landed  in  the  West  High- 
lands, and  were  wandering  in  the  mountains,  followed  and 
watered  by  Argyle  with  a  strong  party  of  his  clan. 
Shortly  after,  he  learned,  by  a  messenger  despatched  on 
purpose,  that  this  was  the  body  of  auxiliaries  sent  to  him 
from  Ulster  by  the  Earl  of  Antrim.  Their  commander 
was  Alaster  of  MacDonald,  a  Scoto-Irishman,  I  believe, 
of  the  Antrim  family.  He  was  called  Col  Kittoch,  or 
Colkitto,  from  his  being  left-handed  ;  a  very  brave  and 
daring  man,  but  vain  and  opinionative,  and  not  understand- 
ing anything  of  regular  warfare.  Montrose  sent  orders 
to  him  to  march  with  all  speed  into  the  district  of  Athole, 
and  despatched  emissaries  to  raise  the  gentlemen  of  that 
country  in  arms,  as  they  were  generally  well  affected  to 
the  King's  cause.  He  himself  set  out  to  join  this  little 
band,  attired  in  an  ordinary  Highland  garb,  and  accom- 
panied only  by  Inchbraco  as  his  guide.  The  Irish  were 
surprised  and  disappointed  to  see  their  expected  General 
appear  so  poorly  dressed  and  attended  ;  nor  had  Montrose 
greater  reason  to  congratulate  himself  on  the  appearance 
of  his  army.  The  force  which  was  assembled  did  not 
exceed  fifteen  hundred  Irish,  instead  of  the  thousands 
promised*,  and  these  were  but  indifferently  armed  and  ap- 
pointed, while  only  a  few  Highlanders  from  Badenoch 
were  yet  come  to  the  appointed  rendezvous. 

These  active  mountain  warriors,  however,  had,  a  day 
or  two  before,  been  at  blows  with  the  Covenanters.  Mac- 
pherson  of  Cluny,  chief  of  hi?  name,  had  sent  out  a  party 
of  men  to  look  out  for  Montrose,  who  was  looked  for 
every  minute.  They  beheld  the  approach  of  a  detached 
body  of  horse,  which  they  concluded  was  the  escort  of 
their  expected  General.  But  when  they  approached 
nearer,  the  MacPhersons  found  it  to  be  several  troops  of 


US  BATTLE    OF    TUTEKMl'IR. 

the  Covenanters'  cavalry,  commanded  by  Colonel  Hernes 
and  quartered  in  Glencairn,  for  the  sake  of  bridling  the 
Highlanders.  While  the  troops  were  coming  on  in  for- 
midable superiority  of  numbers,  MacPherson  of  Invere- 
shie,  who  was  drawing  up  his  Highlanders  for  action, 
observed  one  of  them  in  the  act  of  stooping  j  and  as  he 
lifted  his  stick  to  strike  him  for  such  conduct  in  the  face 
of  the  enemy,  the  Highlander  arose,  and  showed  him  the 
countenance  of  Macpherson  of  Dalifour,  one  of  the  boldes 
men  of  the  clan.  Highly  surprised,  Invereshie  demanded 
how  he,  of  all  men,  could  think  of  stooping  before  an 
enemy.  "  I  was  only  fastening  a  spur  on  the  heel  of  my 
brogue,"  said  Dalifour,  with  perfect  composure.  "  A 
spur  !  and  for  what  purpose,  at  such  a  time  and  place  as 
this  ?"  asked  Invereshie.  "  I  intend  to  have  a  good  horse 
before  the  day  is  over,"  answered  the  clansman,  with  the 
same  coolness.  Dalifour  kept  his  word  ;  for  the  Lowland 
horse  being  worsted  in  the  first  onset,  he  got  possession  of 
a  charger,  on  which  he  followed  the  pursuit,  and  brought 
in  two  prisoners. 

The  report  of  this  skirmish  gave  a  good  specimen  to 
Montrose  of  the  mettle  of  the  mountaineers,  while  the 
subsequent  appearance  of  the  Athole-men,  eight  hundred 
strong,  and  the  enthusiastic  shouts  with  which  they  receiv- 
ed their  General,  soon  gave  confidence  to  the  light-hearted 
Irishmen.  He  instantly  commenced  his  march  upon 
Strathern,'and  crossed  the  Tay.  He  had  scarce  done  so, 
when  he  discovered  on  the  hill  of  Buchanty  a  body  of 
about  four  hundred  men,  who,  he  had  the  satisfaction  to 
learn  by  his  scouts,  were  commanded  by  two  of  his  own 
particular  friends,  Lord  Kilpont  and  Sir  John  Drummond. 
They  had  taken  arms,  on  hearing  that  a  body  of  Irish 
were  traversing  the  country ;  and  learning  that  they 
were  there  under  Montrose's  command,  for  the  King's 
service,  they  immediately  placed  themselves  and  their 
followers  under  his  orders. 

Montrose  received  these  succours  in  good  time,  for 
while  Argyle  pursued  him  with  a  large  body  of  his  ad- 
herents, who  had  followed  the  track  of  the  Irish,  Lord 


SURRENDER    OF    PERTH.  119 

Klcho.  the  Earl  of  Tullibardin,  and  Lonl  Druminond; 
had  collected  an  army  of  Lowlanders  to  protect  the  city 
of  Perth,  and  to  fight  Montrose,  in  case  he  should  descend 
from  the  hills.  Montrose  was  aware,  that  such  an  enter- 
prise as  he  had  undertaken  could  only  he  supported  by 
an  excess  of  activity  and  decision.  He  therefore  advanc- 
ed upon  the  Lowland  forces  of  Elcho,  whom  he  found, 
on  1st  September,  1644,  drawn  up  in  good  order  in  a 
large  plain  called  Tippermuir,  within  three  miles  of  Perth. 
They  were  nearly  double  Montrose's  army  in  number,  and 
much  encouraged  by  numerous  ministers,  who  exhorted 
them  to  fight  valiantly,  and  promised  them  certain  victory. 
They  had  cannon  also,  and  cavalry,  whereas  Montrose 
had  no  artillery,  and  only  three  horses  in  his  army.  Aftej 
a  skirmish  with  the  Covenanters'  cavalry,  in  which  they 
were  beaten  off,  Montrose  charged  with  the  Highlanders, 
under  a  heavy  fire  from  his  Irish  musketeers.  They  burst 
into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  with  irresistible  fury,  and 
compelled  them  to  fly.  Once  broken,  the  superiority  ol 
numbers  became  useless,  as  the  means  of  supporting  a 
main  body  by  reserves  was  not  then  known  or  practised. 
The  Covenanters  fled  in  the  utmost  terror  and  confusion, 
but  the  light-footed  Highlanders  did  great  execution  in 
the  pursuit.  Many  honest  burghers,  distressed  by  the 
extraordinary  speed  which  they  were  compelled  to  exert, 
broke  their  wind,  and  died  in  consequence.  Montrose 
sustained  little  or  no  loss. 

The  town  of  Perth  surrendered,  and  for  this  act  a  long 
string  of  reasons  were  given,  which  are.  rather  amusingly 
stated  in  a  letter  from  the  ministers  of  that  town  ;  but 
we  have  only  space  to  mention  a  few  of  them.  First,  it 
is  alleged,  that  out  of  Elcho's  defeated  army,  only  about 
twelve  of  the  Fifeshire  men  offered  themselves  to  the 
magistrates  in  defence  of  the  town,  and  most  of  them 
were  pot-valiant  from  liquor.  Secondly,  the  citizens  had 
concealed  themselves  in  cellars  and  vaults,  where  they 
lay  panting  in  vain  endeavours  to  recover  the  breath 
which  they  had  wasted  in  their  retreat,  scarcely  finding 
words  enough  to  te'l  the  Provost,  "  that  their  hearts 


1^  SURRENDER    OF    I'EKTII. 

were  away,  and  that  they  would  fight  DO  more  tnough 
they  should  he  killed."  Thirdly,  the  letter  states,  that 
if  the  citizens  had  had  the  inclination  to  stand  out,  they 
had  no  means,  most  of  them  having  flung  away  their 
weapons  in  their  flight.  Fourthly,  the  enemy  were,  it  is 
said,  drawn  up  like  so  many  hellhounds  before  the  gates 
of  the  town,  their  hands  deeply  dyed  in  the  blood  recent- 
ly shed,  and  demanding,  with  hideous  cries,  to  be  led  to 
further  slaughter.  The  Magistrates  perhaps  deserve  no 
olame,  if  they  capitulated  in  such  circumstances,  to  avoid 
the  horrors  of  a  storm.  But  their  conduct  shows,  at  the 
same  time,  how  much  the  people  of  the  Lowlands  had 
degenerated  in  point  of  military  courage. 

Perth  consequently  opened  its  gates  to  the  victor.  But 
Argyle,  whose  northern  army  had  been  augmented  by  a 
considerable  body  of  cavalry,  was  now  approaching  with 
a  force,  against  which  Montrose  could  not  pretend  to  de- 
fend an  open  town.  He  abandoned  Perth,  therefore, 
and  marched  into  Angus-shire,  hoping  he  might  find  ad- 
herents in  that  county.  Accordingly,  he  was  there  joined 
by  the  old  Earl  of  Airlie  and  two  of  his  sons,  who  never 
forsook  him  in  success  or  disaster. 

This  accession  of  strength  was  counterbalanced  by  a 
shocking  event.  There  was  a  Highland  gentleman  in 
Montrose's  camp,  named  James  Stewart  of  Ardvoirlich, . 
whose  birth  had  been  attended  with  some  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances, which,  though  they  lead  me  from  my  pres- 
ent subject,  1  cannot  refrain  from  noticing.  While  his 
mother  was  pregnant,  there  rame  to  the  house  of  Ard- 
voirlich a  band  of  outlaws,  called  Children  of  the  Mist, 
MacGregors,  some  say,  others  call  them  MacDonalds  ot 
Ardnamurchan.  They  demanded  food,  and  the  lady 
caused  bread  and  cheese  to  be  placed  on  the  table,  and 
went  into  the  kitchen  to  order  a  better  meal  to  be  made 
ready,  such  being  the  unvarying  process  of  Highland 
hospitality.  When  the  poor  lady  returned,  she  saw  upon 
the  table,  with  its  mouth  stuffed  full  of  food,  the  bloody 
head  of  her  brother,  Drummond  of  Drummondernoch, 
whom  the  outlaws  had  met  and  murdered  in  the  wood. 


Mfm/tfR    OF    LORD    KII.PONT.  121 

The  poor  woman  shrieked,  ran  wildly  into  the  forest, 
where,  notwithstanding  strict  search,  she  could  not  be 
found  for  many  weeks.  At  length  she  was  secured,  but 
in  a  state  of  insanity,  which  doubtless  was  partly  com- 
municated to  the  infant  of  whom  she  was  shortly  after 
delivered.  The  lad,  however,  grew  up.  He  was  an 
uncertain  and  dangerous  character,  but  distinguished  for 
his  muscular  strength,  which  was  so  great,  that  he  could, 
in  grasping  the  hand  of  another  person,  force  the  blood 
from  under  the  nails.  This  man  was  much  favoured  by 
the  Lord  Kilpont,  whose  accession  to  the  King's  party 
we  lately  mentioned  ;  indeed,  he  was  admitted  to  share 
that  young  nobleman's  tent  and  bed.  It  appears  that 
Ardvoirlich  had  disapproved  of  the  step  which  his  friend 
had  taken  in  joining  Montrose,  and  that  he  had  solicited 
the  young  lord  to  join  him  in  deserting  from  the  Royal 
army,  and,  it  is  even  said,  in  murdering  the  General. 
Lord  Kilpont  rejected  these  proposals  with  disdain,  when, 
either  offended  at  his  expressions,  or  fearful  of  his  ex- 
posing his  treacherous  purpose,  Ardvoirlich  stabbed  Kil- 
pont mortally  with  his  dagger.  He  then  killed  the  sentinel, 
and  escaped  to  the  camp  of  Argyle,  where  he  received 
preferment.  Montrose  was  awaked  by  the  tumult  which 
this  melancholy  event  excited  in  the  camp,  and  rushing 
into  the  crowd  of  soldiers,  had  the  mortification  to  see 
the  bleeding  corpse  of  his  noble  friend,  thus  basely  and 
treacherously  murdered.  The  death  of  this  young  no- 
bleman was  a  great  loss  to  the  Royal  cause. 

Montrose,  so  much  inferior  in  numbers  to  his  enemies, 
could  not  well  form  any  fixed  plan  of  operations.  He 
resolved  to  make  up  for  this,  by  moving  with  the  most 
extraordinary  celerity  from  one  part  of  the  country  to 
another,  so  as  to  strike  severe  blows  where  they  were 
least  expected,  and  take  the  chance  of  awakening  the 
drooping  spirit  of  the  Royalists.  He  therefore  marched 
suddenly  to  Aberdeen,  to  endeavour  to  arouse  the  Gor- 
dons to  arms,  and  defeat  any  body  of  Covenanters  which 
»ight  overawe  the  King's  friends  in  that  country  His 
6  VOL.  i.  2d  SER. 


122  MAUCH    ON    ABERDEEN. 

nnny  was  now,  however,  greatly  reduced  in  numbers, 
for  the  Highlanders,  who  had  no  idea  of  scrvin-i  for  a 
whole  campaign,  had  gone  home  to  then  own  districts,  to 
lodge  their  booty  in  safety,  and  get  in  their  harvest.  It 
was,  on  all  occasions,  the  greatest  inconvenience  attend- 
ing a  Highland  army,  that  after  a  battle,  whether  they 
won  the  day  or  lost  it,  they  were  certain  to  leave  their 
standard  in  great  numbers,  and  held  it  their  undoubted 
right  to  do  so ;  insomuch,  that  a  victory  thinned  their 
ranks  as  much  as  to  defeat  is  apt  to  do  those  of  other 
armies.  It  is  true,  that  they  could  be  gathered  again 
with  equal  celerity  ;  but  this  humour,  of  deserting  at 
their  pleasure,  was  a  principal  reason  why  the  brilliant 
victories  of  Montrose  were  productive  of  few  decided 
results. 

On  reaching  Aberdeen,  Montrose  hastened  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  Bridge  of  Dee,  the  -principal  approach  to 
that  town,  and  having  made  good  this  important  point,  he 
found  himself  in  front  of  an  army  commanded  by  Lord 
Burleigh.  He  had  the  mortification  also  to  find,  that 
part  of  a  large  body  of  horse  in  the  Covenanting  army 
were  Gordons,  who  had  been  compelled  to  take  arms  in 
that  cause  by  Lord  Lewis  Gordon,  the  second  son  of  the 
Marquis  of  Huntly,  a  wild  and  wilful  young  man,  whose 
politics  differed  from  those  of  his  father  and  family. 

Finding  himself  greatly  inferior  in  horse,  of  which  he 
had  not  fifty,  Montrose  intermingled  with  his  cavalry 
some  of  his  musketeers,  who,  for  breath  and  speed,  could 
keep  up  with  the  movements  of  such  horse  as  he  possess- 
ed. The  Gordons,  not  perhaps  very  favourable  to  the 
side  on  which  they  ranked,  made  an  ineffectual  attack 
upon  the  horse  of  Montrose,  which  was  repelled.  When 
the  mingled  musketeers  and  cavalry  advanced  on  them, 
Lord  Lewis's  men  fled,  in  spite  of  his  own  personal  ex- 
ertions ;  and  Montrose,  we  are  informed,  found  it  possi- 
ble to  move  .his  handful  of  cavalry  to  the  other  wing  of 
his  army,  and  to  encounter  and  defeat  the  horse  of  the 
Covenanters  on  both  flank?  successively  with  the  same 
wearied  party  of  riders.  The  terror  struck  into  his  op- 


SACK    OF    ABERDEEN.  123 

ponerils  by  the  novelty  of  mixing  musketeers  with  oaval- 
rv,  contributed  not  a  little  to  this  extraordinary  success 
While  this  was  passing,  the  two  bodies  of  infantry  can- 
nonaded each  other,  for  Montrose  had  the  guns  which  he 
took  at  Tippennuir.  The  Covenanters  had  the  superior- 
ity in  this  part  of  the  action,  but  it  did  not  daunt  the 
Royalists.  The  gaiety  of  an  Irishman,  whose  leg  was 
shot  off,  gave  spirit  to  all  around  him — "  Go  on,"  he 
cried,  "  this  bodes  me  promotion  ;  for  now  the  General 
will  make  me  a  trooper."  Montrose  left  the  courage  of 
his  men  no  time  to  subside — he  led  them  daringly  up  to 
the  enemy's  teeth,  and  succeeded  in  a  desperate  charge, 
routing  the  Covenanters,  and  pursuing  them  into  the 
town  and  through  the  streets.  Stormed  as  it  was  by  such 
a  tumultuary  army,  Aberdeen  and  its  inhabitants  suffered 
greatly.  Many  were  killed  in  the  streets  ;  and  the  cru- 
elty of  the  Irish  in  particular  was  so  great,  that  they  com- 
pelled the  wretched  citizens  to  strip  themselves  of  their 
clothes  before  they  killed  them,  to  prevent  their  being 
spoiled  with  blood  !  Montrose  necessarily  gave  way  to 
acts  of  pillage  and  cruelty,  which  he  could  not  prevent, 
because  he  was  unprovided  with  money  to  pay  his  half- 
barbarous  soldiery.  Yet  the  town  of  Aberdeen  had  two 
reasons  for  expecting  better  treatment : — First,  that  it 
had  always  inclined  to  the  King's  party  ;  and,  secondly, 
that  Montrose  himself  had,  when  acting  for  the  Cove- 
nanters, been  the  agent  in  oppressing  for  its  loyalty  the 
very  city  which  his  troops  were  now  plundering  on  the 
opposite  score. 

Argyle  always  continued  following  Montrose  with  a  su- 
perior army,  but,  it  would  appear,  not  with  a  very  anx- 
ious desire  to  overtake  him.  Will)  a  degree  of  activity 
that  seemed  incredible,  Montrose  marched  up  the  Spry, 
hoping  still  to  raise  the  Gordons.  But  these  gentlemen 
too  strongly  resented  his  former  conduct  towards  them, 
as  Genera!  of  the  Covenant,  besides  being  sore  with  re- 
collections for  their  recent  check  at  the  Bridge  of  Dee, 
and  would  not  join  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  men  of 
Murray,  who  were  very  zealous  against  Montrose,  appenr- 


l!24  SKIRMISH    AT    FVVIK. 

ed  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  Spey  to  oppose  his  pas- 
sage. Thus  hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  and  headed  hack 
like  an  animal  of  chase  from  the  course  he  intended  to 
pursue,  Montrose  and  nis  litde  army  showed  an  extremity 
of  courage.  They  hid  their  cannon  in  a  bog,  destroyed 
what  they  had  of  heavy  baggage,  entered  Badenoch, 
where  the  Clan  Chattan  had  shown  themselves  uniformly 
friendly,  and  descended  from  thence  upon  Athole,  and 
so  on  to  Angus-shire.  After  several  long  and  rapid 
marches,  Montrose  returned  again  into  Strathbogie,  re- 
crossing  the  great  chain  of  the  Grampians,  and,  clinging 
still  to  the  hope  of  being  able  to  raise  the  gentlemen  of 
the  name  of  Gordon,  again  repaired  to  Aberdeenshire. 

Here  this  J?old  leader  narrowly  escaped  a  great  dan- 
ger. His  army  was  considerably  dispersed,  and  he  him- 
self lying  at  the  Castle  of  Fyvie,  when  he  found  himself 
at  once  threatened,  and  nearly  surrounded,  by  Argyle  and 
Lothian,  at  the  head  of  very  superior  forces.  A  part  of 
the  enemy  had  already  occupied  the  approach  to  his  po- 
sition by  means  of  ditches  and  enclosures  through  which 
they  had  insinuated  themselves,  and  his  own  men  were 
beginning  to  look  out  of  countenance,  when  Montrose, 
disguising  his  apprehensions,  called  to  a  gay  and  gallant 
young  Irish  officer,  as  if  he  had  been  imposing  a  trifling 
piece  of  duty, — "  What  are  you  doing,  O'Kean  ?  can 
you  not  chase  these  troublesome  rascals  out  of  the  ditch- 
es and  enclosures  ?"  O'Kean  obeyed  the  command  in 
the  spirit  in  which  it  was  given  ;  and,  driving  the  enemy 
before  him,  got  possession  of  some  of  their  gunpowder 
whirh  was  much  needed  in  Montrose's  army.  The  re- 
mark of  the  Irishman  on  this  occasion,  who  heavily  com- 
plained of  the  neglect  of  the  enemy  in  omitting  to  leave 
a  supply  of  ball  corresponding  to  the  powder,  showed  the 
confidence  with  which  Montrose  had  been  able  to  inspire 
his  men. 

The  Earl  of  Lothian,  on  the  other  side,  came  with  four 
troops  of  horse  upon  Montrose's  hafdful  of  cavalry, 
amounting  srarrelv  to  fifty  men.  But  Montrose  had,  as 
at  the  bridge  of  i)ee,  sustained  his  troooers  by  mingling 


CLOSE    OF    THE    CAMPAIGN.  125 

them  with  mt,  >ketry.  So  that  Lothian's  men,  receiving 
an  unexpected  and  gal  ing  fire,  wheeled  about,  and  could 
not  again  be  brought  to  advance.  Many  hours  were  spent 
in  skirmishing,  with  advantage  on  Montrose's  part,  and 
loss  on  that  of  Argyle,  until  at  length  the  former  thought 
it  most  advisable  to  retreat  from  Fyvie  to  Strathbogie. 

On  the  road,  he  was  deserted  by  many  Lowland  gen- 
tlemen who  had  joined  him,  and  who  saw  his  victories 
were  followed  with  no  better  results  than  toilsome  march- 
es among  wilds,  where  it  was  nearly  impossible  to  provide 
subsistence  for  man  or  horse,  and  which  the  approach  of 
winter  was  about  to  render  still  more  desolate.  They 
left  his  army,  therefore,  promising  to  return  in  summer  ; 
and  of  all  his  Lowland  adherents,  the  old  Earl  of  Airlie 
and  his  sons  alone  remained.  They  had  paid  dearly  for 
their  attachment  to  the  Royal  cause,  Argyle  having  plun- 
dered their  estates,  and  burnt  their  principal  mansion,  the 
"  Bonnie  house  of  Airlie,"  situated  on  the  river  Isla,  the 
memory  of  which  conflagration  is  still  preserved  in  Scot- 
tish song. 

But  the  same  circumstances  which  wearied  out  the 
patience  of  Montrose's  Lowland  followers,  rendered  it 
impossible  for  Argyle  to  keep  the  field  ;  and  he  sent  his 
army  into  winter  quarters,  in  full  confidence  that  his  enemy 
was  cooped  up  for  the  season  in  the  narrow  and  unpro- 
vided country  of  Athole  and  its  neighbourhood,  where 
he  might  be  suffered  to  exist  with  little  inconvenience  to 
the  rest  of  Scotland,  till  spring  should  enable  the  Cove- 
nanters to  attack  him  with  a  superior  force.  In  the  mean- 
time, the  Marquis  of  Argyle  returned  to  his  own  domains. 


126  INVASION  of  ARGVLE'S  COUNTRY. 


CHAPTER  X. 

fatnsion  of  Ar gyle's  Country  by  Montrote — Batths 
Fnverlochy,  Aulderne,  jllford,  and  Kilsyth,  gained 
Montr oge}  who,  by  the  Victory  at  Kilsi/th,  become* 
Master  of  Scotland — He  is  appointed  Captain- Gen- 
eral and  Lieutenant- Governor  of  Scotland — marches 
upon  the  Borders — is  defeated  by  Lesley  at  Philip' 
haugft — retires  to  the  Highlands,  and  leaves  Scotland. 

IT  was  about  the  middle  of  December  that  Argyle  was 
residing  at  his  castle  of  Inverary,  in  the  most  perfect 
confidence  that  the  enemy  could  not  approach  him,  since 
he  used  to  say  he  would  not  for  a  hundred  thousand 
crowns  that  any  one  knew  the  passes  from  the  eastward 
into  the  shire  of  Argyle.  While  the  powerful  Marquis 
was  enjoying  his  fancied  security  of  his  feudal  domin- 
ions, he  was  astounded  with  the  intelligence  that  Mont- 
rose,  with  an  army  of  Highlanders,  wading  through  drifts 
of  snow,  scaling  precipices,  and  traversing  the  mountain 
paths,  known  to  none  save  the  solitary  shepherd  or  hunts- 
man, had  forced  an  entry  into  his  country,  which  he  was 
laying  waste  with  all  the  vindictive  severity  of  deadly 
feud.  There  was  neither  time  nor  presence  of  mind  for 
defence.  The  able-bodied  men  were  slaughtered,  the 
cattle  driven  off,  the  houses  burnt ;  and  the  invaders  had 
divided  themselves  into  three  bands,  to  make  the  devas- 
tation more  complete.  Alarmed  by  this  fierce  and  un- 
expected invasion,  Argyle  embarked  on  board  a  fishing 
boat,  and  left  his  country  to  its  fate.  Montrose  continued 
the  work  of  revenge  for  nearly  a  month,  and  then  con- 
cluding he  had  destroyed  the  influence  which  Argyle,  by 
the  extent  of  his  power,  and  the  supposed  strength  of  his 
country,  had  possessed  over  the  minds  of  the  Highland- 
er*, he  withdrew  towards  Inverness,  with  the  purpose  of 


BATTLE    OF    INVEHl.OCHY.  127 

organizing  a  general  gathering  of  the  clans.  But  he  had 
scarce  made  this  movement,  when  he  learned  that  his 
rival,  Argyle,  had  returned  into  the  Western  Highlands 
with  some  Lowland  forces  ;  that  he  had  called  around 
him  his  numerous  clan,  burning  to  revenge  the  wrongs 
which  they  had  sustained,  and  was  lying  with  a  strong 
force  near  the  old  Castle  of  Inverlochy,  situated  at  the 
western  extremity  of  the  chain  of  lakes  through  which 
the  Caledonian  canal  is  now  conducted. 

The  news  at  once  altered  Montrose's  plans. 

He  returned  upon  Argyle  by  a  succession  of  the  most 
difficult  mountain-passes  covered  with  snow ;  and  the 
vanguard  of  the  Campbells  saw  themselves  suddenly 
engaged  with  that  of  their  implacable  enemy.  Both 
parties  lay  all  night  on  their  arms,  but  by  break  of  day, 
Argyle  betook  himself  to  his  galley,  and,  rowing  off 
shore,  remained  a  spectator  of  the  combat,  when,  by  all 
the  rules  of  duty  and  gratitude,  he  ought  to  have  been  at 
the  head  of  his  devoted  followers.  His  unfortunate 
clansman  supported  the  honour  of  the  name  with  the 
greatest  courage,  and  many  of  the  most  distinguished  fell 
on  the  field  of  battle.  Montrose  gained  a  complete  vic- 
tory, which  greatly  extended  his  influence  over  the  High- 
lands, and  in  proportion  diminished  that  of  his  discomfit- 
ed rival. 

Having  collected  what  force  he  could,  Montrose  now 
marched  triumphantly  to  the  north-east ;  and  in  the  pres- 
ent successful  posture  of  his  affairs,  engaged  at  length  the 
Gordons  to  join  him  with  a  good  body  of  cavalry,  com- 
manded by  their  young  chief,  Lord  Gordon.  The  Con- 
vention of  Estates  were  now  most  seriously  alarmed. 
While  Montrose  had  roamed  through  the  Highlands,  re- 
treating betore  a  superior  enemy,  and  apparently  on  the 
point  of  being  every  moment  overwhelmed,  his  progress 
was  regarded  as  a  distant  danger.  But  he  was  now 
threatening  the  low  country,  and  the  ruling  party  were 
not  so  confident  of  their  strength  there  as  to  set  so  bold 
an  adventurer  at  defiance.  They  called  from  the  army 
in  England  General  Baillie,  an  officer  of  skill  and  char- 


128  STORMING    OF    DUNOKE. 

acter,  and  Sir  John  TJrry,  or,  as  the  English  called  him. 
Hurry,  also  a  brave  and  good  partizan,  but  a  mere  sol- 
dier of  fortune,  who  had  changed  sides  more  than  once 
during  the  civil  war. 

These  generals  commanded  a  body  of  veteran  troops, 
with  which  they  manoeuvred  to  'exclude  Montrose  from 
the  southern  districts,  and  prevent  his  crossing  the  Tay 
or  Forth.  At  the  same  time,  the  mandate  of  the  Mar- 
quis of  Huntly,  or  the  intrigues  of  Lord  Lewis  Gordon, 
again  recalled  most  of  the  Gordons  from  Montrose's  stand- 
ard, and  his  cavalry  was  reduced  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty.  He  was  compelled  again  to  retire  to  the  mountains, 
but,  desirous  to  dignify  his  retreat  by  some  distinguished 
action,  he  resolved  to  punish  the  town  of  Dundee  for 
their  steady  adherence  to  the  cause  of  the  Covenant. 
Accordingly,  suddenly  appearing  before  it  with  a  chosen 
body  selected  for  the  service,  he  stormed  the  place  on 
three  points  at  once.  The  Highlanders  and  Irish,  with 
incredible  fury,  broke  open  the  gales,  and  forced  an  en- 
trance. They  were  dispersing  in  quest  of  liquor  and 
plunder,  when  at  the  very  moment  that  Montrose  threat- 
ened to  set  the  town  on  fire,  he  received  intelligence  that 
Baillie  and  Urry,  with  four  thousand  men,  were  within  a 
mile  of  the  place.  The  moment  required  all  the  activi- 
ty of  Montrose  ;  but  he  was  able  to  withdraw  the  men 
from  their  revelling  and  plundering,  to  get  his  army  into 
order,  and  to  effect  a  retreat  to  the  mountains,  which  he 
safely  accomplished  in  the  face  of  his  numerous  enemies, 
and  with  a  degree  of  skill  which  established  his  military 
character  as  firmly  as  any  of  his  victories. 

In  this  difficult  manoeuvre,  Montrose  was  well  second- 
ed by  the  hardihood  and  resolution  of  s  men,  who  are 
said  to  have  marched  about  sixty  miles,  and  to  have  pass- 
ed three  days  and  two  nights  in  manoeuvring  and  fighting, 
without  either  food  or  refreshment.  In  this  manner  that 
leader  repeatedly  baffled  the  numerous  forces  and  able 
generals  who  were  employed  against  him.  The  great 
check  upon  his  enterprise  was  the  restlessness  of  the 
Highlanders,  and  the  caprice  of  the  gentlemen  who  form 


DEFECTION  OF  THE  GORDONS.  129 

«d  his  cavalry,  who  all  went  and  came  at  their  own  plea- 
sure. 

I  have  told  you  that  the  Gordons  had  been  withdrawn 
from  Mont  rose's  standard,  contrary  to  their  own  inclina- 
tions, by  the  command  of  Huntly,  or  the  address  of  Lord 
Lewis  Gordon.  By  employing  his  followers  in  enter- 
|  -ises  in  which  the  plunder  was  certain  and  the  dangei 
small,  this  young  nobleman  collected  under  his  standard 
all  those  who  were  reluctant  to  share  the  toilsome  march- 
es and  bloody  fights  to  which  they  were  led  under  that 
of  Montrose.  Hence  a  rhyme,  not  yet  forgotten  in  Ab^r- 
deenshire, 

If  you  with  Lord  Lewis  go 

You'll  get  reif  and  prey  enough ; 
If  you  with  Mont  rose  go, 

You'll  get  grief  and  wac  enough. 

But  the  Lord  Gordon,  Lewis's  elder  brother,  contin- 
uing attached  in  the  warmest  manner  to  Montrose,  was 
despatched  by  him  to  bring  back  the  gentlemen  of  his 
warlike  family,  arid  his  influence  soon  assembled  consid- 
erable forces.  General  Baillie,  learning  this,  detached 
Urry,  his  colleague,  with  a  force  which  he  thought  suffi- 
cient to  destroy  Lord  Gordon,  while  he  himself  proposed 
to  engage  the  attention  of  Montrose  till  that  point  was 
gained. 

But  Montrose,  penetrating  the  intention  of  the  Cove- 
nanting generals,  eluded  Baillie's  attempts  to  bring  him 
to  action,  and  traversed  the  mountains  of  the  North  like 
a  whirlwind,  to  support  Lord  Gordon,  and  crush  Urry. 
He  accomplished  his  first  object;  but  Urry  had  been 
joined  by  the  Covenanters  of  Murray,  with  the  Earls  of 
Seaforth,  Sutherland,  and  others  who  maintained  the 
same  cause,  and  had  thus  collected  an  army  more  nume- 
rous than  that  of  Montrose,  even  when  united  to  Lord 
Gordon. 

Montrose  prepared  to  give  them  battle  at  the  village  of 
Aulderne,  and  drew  up  his  men  in  an  unusual  manner,  to 
conceal  his  inequality  of  force.  The  village,  which  is 
situated  on  an  eminence,  with  high  ground  behind,  wa? 


130  BATTLE    OF    AULDERNE. 

surrounded  by  enclosures  on  each  side  and  in  front.  He 
stationed  on  the  right  of  the  village  Alexander  Mac  Don- 
ald, with  four  hundred  Irishmen  and  Highlanders,  com- 
manding them  to  maintain  a  defensive  combat  only,  and 
giving  them  strict  orders  not  to  sally  from  some  strong 
sheepfolds  and  enclosures,  which  afforded  the  advantages 
of  a  fortified  position.  As  he  wished  to  draw  towards 
that  point  the  principal  attention  of  the  enemy,  he  gave 
this  right  wing  charge  of  the  royal  standard,  which  was 
usually  displayed  where  he  commanded  in  person.  On 
the  left  side  of  the  village  of  Aulderne,  he  drew  up  the 
principal  part  of  his  force,  he  himself  commanding  the 
infantry,  and  Lord  Gordon  the  cavalry.  His  two  wings 
being  thus  formed,  Montrose  had  in  reality  no  centre 
force  whatever;  but  a  few  resolute  men  posted  in  front 
of  the  village,  and  his  cannon  placed  in  the  same  line, 
made  it  appear  as  if  the  houses  covered  a  body  of  in- 
fantry. 

Urry,  deceived  by  these  dispositions,  attacked  with  a 
preponderating  force  the  position  of  MacDonald.  Col- 
kitto  beat  them  back  with  the  Irish  musketeers,  and  the 
bows  and  arrows  of  the  Highlanders,  who  still  used  these 
ancient  missile  weapons.  But  when  the  enemy,  rein-w- 
ing their  attack,  taunted  MacDonald  with  cowardice  for 
remaining  under  shelter  of  the  sheepfolds,  that  leader, 
whose  bravery  greatly  excelled  his  discretion,  sallied  forth 
from  his  fastness,  contrary  to  Montrose's  positive  com- 
mand, to  show  he  was  not  averse  to  fight  on  equal  ground. 
The  superiority  of  numbers,  and  particularly  of  cavalry, 
which  was  instantly  opposed  to  him,  soon  threw  his  men 
into  great  disorder,  and  they  could  with  difficulty  be  ral- 
lied by  the  desperate  exertions  of  Colkitto,  who  strove  to 
make  amends  for  his  error,  by  displaying  the  utmost  per- 
sonal valour. 

A  trusty  officer  was  despatched  to  Montrose  to  let  him 
know  the  state  of  affairs.  The  messenger  found  him  on 
the  point  of  joining  battle,  and  whispered  in  his  ear  that 
Colkitto  was  defeated.  This  only  determined  Montrose 
lo  pursue  with  the  greater  audacity  the  plan  of  battle 


BATTLE    OF    AULDERNE.  I'M 

which  he  had  adopted.  "  What  are  we  doing  ?"  he  call- 
ed out  to  Lord  Gordon  ;  "  MacDonald  has  been  victori- 
ous on  the  left,  and  if  we  do  not  make  haste,  he  will 
carry  off  all  the  honours  of  the  day."  Lord  Gordon  in- 
stantly charged  with  the  gentlemen  of  his  name,  and  beat 
the  Covenanters'  horse  off  the  field ;  but  the  foot,  though 
deserted  by  the  horse,  stood  firm  for  some  time,  for  they 
were  veteran  troops.  At  length  they  were  routed  on 
every  point,  and  compelled  to  fly  with  great  loss. 

Montrose  failed  not  instantly  to  lead  succours  to  the  re- 
lief of  his  left  wing,  which  was  in  great  peril.  Colkitto  had 
got  his  men  cgain  secured  in  the  enclosures,  he  himself 
defended  the  entrance  sword  in  hand,  and  with  a  target  on 
his  left  arm.  The  pikemen  pressed  him  so  hard  as  to  fix 
their  spears  by  two  or  three  at  a  time  in  his  target,  while 
he  repeatedly  freed  himself  of  them  by  cutting  the  heads 
from  the  shafts,  by  the  unerring  sweep  of  his  broadsword. 

While  Colkitto  and  his  followers  were  thus  hard  press- 
ed, Montrose  and  his  victorious  troops  appeared,  and  the 
face  of  affairs  was  suddenly  changed.  Urry's  horse  fled, 
out  the  foot,  which  were  the  strength  of  his  army,  fought 
bravely,  and  fell  in  the  ranks  which  they  occupied.  Two 
thousand  men,  about  a  third  of  Urry's  army,  were  slain 
in  the  battle  of  Aulderne ;  and,  completely  disabled  by 
the  overthrow,  that  commander  was  compelled  once  more 
to  unite  his  scattered  forces  with  those  of  Baillie. 

After  some  marching  and  counter-marching,  the  arm- 
ies again  found  themselves  in  the  neighbourhood  of  each 
other,  near  to  the  village  of  Alford. 

Montrose  occupied  a  strong  position  on  a  hill,  and  it 
was  said  that  the  cautious  Baillie  would  have  avoided  the 
encounter,  had  it  not  been  that,  having  crossed  the  river 
Don,  in  the  belief  that  Montro?e  was  in  full  retreat,  he 
only  discovered  his  purpose  of  giving  battle  when  it  was 
too  late  to  decline  it.  The  number  of  infantry  was  about 
two  thousand  in  each  army.  But  Baillie  had  more  than 
double  his  3pponent's  number  ol  cavalry.  Montrose's, 
indeed,  were  gentlemen,  and  therefore  in  the  day  of  bat- 
tle were  more  to  be  relied  on  than  mere  hirelings  The 


132  BATTLE    OF    ALFORD. 

Gordons  dispersed  the  Covenanting  horse  on  the  nist 
shock  ;  and  ihe  musketeers,  throwing  down  their  muskets 
and  mingling  in  the  tumult  with  their  swords  drawn,  pre- 
vented the  cavalry  from  rallying.  But  as  Lord  Gordon 
threw  himself,  for  the  second  time,  into  the  heat  of  the 
fight,  he  fell  from  his  horse,  mortally  wounded  by  a  shot 
from  one  of  the  fugitives.  This  accident,  which  gave  the 
greatest  distress  to  Montrose,  suspended  the  exertions  of 
the  cavalry,  who,  chiefly  friends,  kinsmen,  and  vassais  of 
the  deceased,  flocked  around  him  to  lament  the  genera) 
loss.  But  the  veterans  of  Montrose,  charging  in  columns 
of  six  and  ten  men  deep,  along  a  line  of  three  men  only, 
broke  that  of  the  Covenanters  on  various  points,  and  ut- 
terly destroyed  the  remnant  of  Baillie's  army,  though 
they  defended  themselves  bravely. 

These  repeated  victories  gave  such  lustre  to  Montrose's 
arms,  that  he  was  now  joined  by  the  Highland  clans  in 
great  numbers,  and  by  many  of  the  Lowland  anti-cove- 
nanters, who  had  before  held  back,  from  doubt  of  his  suc- 
cess in  so  unequal  a  contest. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Convention  of  Estates,  sup- 
ported by  the  counsels  of  Argyle,  who  was  bold  in  coun- 
cil though  timid  in  battle,  persevered  in  raising  new  troops, 
notwithstanding  their  repeated  misfortunes  and  defeats. 
It  seemed,  indeed,  as  if  Heaven  had  at  this  disastrous 
period  an  especial  controversy  with  the  kingdom  of  Scot- 
land. To  the  efforts  necessary  to  keep  up  and  supply 
their  auxiliary  army  in  England,  were  added  the  desola- 
tion occasioned  by  a  destructive  civil  war,  maintained  in 
the  north  with  equal  fury  and  success,  and  conducted  on 
both  sides  with  deplorable  devastation.  To  these  evils, 
as  if  not  sufficient  to  exhaust  the  resources  of  a  poor 
country,  were  now  added  those  of  a  wide-wasting  plague, 
or  pestilence,  which  raged  through  all  the  kingdom,  but 
especially  in  Edinburgh,  the  metropolis.  The  Conven 
tion  of  Estates  were  driven  from  the  capital  by  this  dread 
ful  infliction,  and  retreated  to  Pe,rth,  where  they  assem- 
bled a  large  force  under  General  Baillie,  while  they  or- 
dered a  levy  of  ten  thousand  men  throughout  the  king;- 


DESTRUCTION    OF    CASTLE-CAMPBELL.  133 

dom.  While  Lanark,  Cassilis,  Eglinton,  and  other  lords 
of  the  western  shires,  went  to  their  respective  counties  to 
expedite  the  measure,  Montrose,  with  his  usual  activity, 
descended  from  the  mountains  at  the  head  of  an  army 
augmented  in  numbers,  and  flushed  with  success. 

He  first  approached  the  shores  of  the  Forth,  by  occu- 
pying the  shire  of  Kinross.  And  here  I  cannot  help 
mentioning  the  destruction  of  a  noble  castle  belonging  to 
the  House  of  Argyle.  Its  majestic  ruins  are  situated  on 
an  eminence  occupying  a  narrow  glen  of  the  Ochil  chain 
of  hills.  In  former  days,  it  was  called,  from  the  char- 
acter of  its  situation  perhaps,  the  Castle  of  Gloom  ;  and 
the  names  of  the  parish,  and  the  stream  by  which  its 
banks  are  washed,  had  also  an  ominous  sound.  The 
Castle  of  Gloom  was  situated  on  the  brook  of  Grief  or 
Gryfe,  and  in  the  parish  of  Dollar  or  Dolour.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  the  owner  of  this 
noble  fortress,  obtained  an  act  of  parliament  for  changing 
its  name  to  Castle  Campbell.  The  feudal  hatred  of  Mon- 
trose, and  of  the  clans  composing  the  strength  of  his  ar- 
my, the  vindictive  resentment  also  of  the  Ogilvies,  for  the 
destruction  of  "  the  Bonnie  House  of  Airlie,"  and  that 
of  the  Stirlingshire  cavaliers  for  that  of  Menstrie,  doom- 
ed this  magnificent  pile  to  flames  and  ruin.  The  de- 
struction of  many  a  meaner  habitation  by  the  same  unscru- 
pulous spirit  of  vengeance  has  been  long  forgotten,  but 
the  majestic  remains  of  Castle  Campbell  still  excite  a 
sigh  in  those  that  view  them,  over  the  miseries  of  civil 
war. 

After  similar  acts  of  ravage  not  to  be  justified,  though 
not  unprovoked,  Montrose  marched  westward  along  the 
northern  margin  of  the  Forth,  insulting  Perth,  where  the 
army  of  the  Covenanters  remained  in  their  entrench- 
ments, and  even  menacing  the  Castle  of  Stirling,  which, 
well  garrisoned  and  strongly  situated,  defied  his  means  of 
attack.  About  six  miles  above  Stirling  he  crossed  the 
Forth,  by  the  deep  and  precarious  ford  which  the  livev 
presents  before  its  junction  with  the  Teilh.  Having  at- 


•  34  BATTLE    OF    KILSYTH. 

tained  the  southern  bank,  he  directed  Ms  course  west 
ward,  with  the  purpose  of  dispersing  the  levies  which  the 
western  lords  were  collecting,  and  doubtless  with  the  view 
of  plundering  the  country,  which  had  attached  itself 
chiefly  to  the  Covenant.  Montrose  had,  however,  scarce- 
ly reached  Kilsyth,  when  he  received  the  news  that  Bail- 
lie's  army,  departing  from  Perth,  had  also  crossed  the 
Forth,  at  the  Bridge  of  Stirling,  and  W7as  close  at  hand. 
With  his  usual  alacrity,  Montrose  prepared  for  battle, 
which  Baillie,  had  he  been  left  to  his  own  judgment, 
would  have  avoided ;  for  that  skilful  though  unfortunate 
General  knew  by  experience  the  talents  of  Montrose,  and 
that  the  character  of  his  troops  was  admirably  qualified 
for  a  day  of  combat ;  while  lie  also  considered  that  an 
army  so  composed  might  be  tired  out  by  cautious  opera- 
tions, and  expected  that  the  Highlanders  and  Lowland 
Cavaliers  would  alike  desert  their  leader  in  the  course  of 
a  protracted  and  indecisive  warfare.  But  Baillie  was  no 
longer  the  sole  commander  of  the  Covenanting  army 
A  Committee  of  the  Estates,  consisting  of  Argyle,  Lan- 
ark, and  Crawford-Lindsay,  had  been  nominated  to  at- 
tend his  army,  and  control  his  motions  ;  and  these,  es- 
pecially the  Earl  of  Lindsay,  insisted  that  the  veteran 
General  should  risk  the  last  regular  army  which  the  Cov- 
enanters possessed  in  Scotland,  in  the  perils  of  a  decisive 
battle.  They  marched  against  Montrose,  accordingly,  ai 
break  of  day  on  the  15th  August,  1C45. 

When  Montrose  beheld  them  advance,  he  exclaimed 
that  it  was  what  he  had  most  earnestly  desired.  He 
caused  his  men  to  strip  to  their  shirts,  in  token  of  their 
resolution  to  fight  to  the  death.  Meantime  the  Cove- 
nanters approached.  Their  vanguard  attacked  an  ad- 
vanced post  of  Montrose  which  occupied  a  strong  position 
among  cottages  and  enclosures.  They  were  beaten  off 
with  loss.  A  thousand  Highlanders,  with  their  natural 
impetuosity,  rushed,  without  orders,  to  pursue  the  fugitives, 
and  to  assault  the  troops  who  were  advancing  to  support 
them.  Two  regrnents  of  horse,  against  whom  this  moun- 
tain torrent  directed  its  fury,  became  disordered  and  fell 


NORMAL  blHUUL. 

CAL. 

MONTROSE' s  PLAN  TO  MARCH  INTO  ENGLAND.  135 

back.  Montrose  saw  the  decisive  moment,  and  ordered 
his  whole  army  to  attack  the  enemy,  who  had  not  yet  got 
into  line,  their  rearguard  and  centre  corning  up  too  slowly 
to  the  support  of  their  vanguard.  The  hideous  shout 
with  which  the  Highlanders  charged,  their  wild  appear- 
ance, and  the  extraordinary  speed  with  which  they  ad- 
vanced, nearly  naked,  broadsword  in  hand,  struck  a  panic 
into  their  opponents,  who  dispersed  without  any  spirited 
effort  to  get  into  line  of  battle,  or  maintain  their  ground. 
The  Covenanters  were  beaten  off  the  field,  and  pursued 
with  indiscriminate  slaughter  for  more  than  ten  miles. 
Four  or  five  thousand  men  were  slain  in  the  field  and  in 
the  flight ;  and  the  force  of  the  Convention  was  for  the 
time  entirely  broken. 

Montrose  was  now  master,  for  the  moment,  of  the  king- 
dom of  Scotland.  Edinburgh  surrendered  ;  Glasgow 
paid  a  heavy  contribution  ;  the  noblemen  and  other  in- 
dividuals of  distinction  who  had  been  imprisoned  as  roy- 
alists in  Edinburgh,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  king- 
dom, were  set  at  liberty  ;  and  so  many  persons  of  quality 
now  declared  for  Montrose,  either  from  attachment  to  the 
royal  cause,  which  they  had  hitherto  concealed,  or  from 
the  probability  of  its  being  ultimately  successful,  that  he 
felt  himself  in  force  sufficient  to  call  a  Parliament  at 
Glasgow  in  the  King's  name. 

Still,  however,  the  success  of  this  heroic  leader  had 
only  given  him  possession  of  the  open  country ;  all  the 
strong  fortresses  were  still  in  possession  of  the  Covenant- 
ers ;  and  it  would  have  required  a  length  of  time,  and  the 
services  of  an  array  regularly  disciplined  and  supplied 
with  heavy  artillery,  to  have  reduced  the  Castles  of  Ed- 
inburgh, Stirling,  Dumbarton,  and  other  places  of  great 
strength.  But  if  Montrose  had  had  the  forces  necessary 
for  such  a  work,  he  had  neither  leisure  nor  inclination  to 
undertake  it.  From  the  beginning  of  his  extraordinary, 
and  hitherto  successful  career,  he  had  secretly  entertaineti 
the  dazzling  hope  of  leading  a  victorious  army  into  Eng- 
land, and  replacing  King  Charles  in  possession  of  his 
disputed  authority.  It  was  a  daring  scheme  ;  yet  if  the 


136  MONTROSE    APPOINTED 

Kind's  affairs  in  England  had  remained  in  any  tolerable 
condition,  especially  if  there  had  been  any  considerable 
army  of  Royalists  in  the  North  of  England  to  join  or  co- 
operate with  Montrose,  there  is  no  calculating  what  the 
talents  and  genius  of  such  an  enterprising  general  might 
have  ultimately  done  in  support  of  the  Royal  cause. 

But  King  Charles,  as  I  shall  presently  tell  you  more 
particularly,  had  suffered  so  many  and  such  fatal  losses, 
that  it  may  be  justly  doubted  whether  the  assistance  of 
Montrose,  unless  at  the  head  of  much  larger  forces  than 
he  could  be  expected  to  gather,  would  have  afforded  any 
material  assistance  against  the  numerous  and  well-disci- 
plined army  of  the  Parliament.  The  result  of  a  contest 
which  was  never  tried  can  only  be  guessed  at.  Montrose's 
own  hopes  and  confidence  were  as  lofty  as  his  ambition  ; 
and  he  did  not  permit  himself  to  doubt  the  predictions  of 
those  who  assured  him,  that  he  was  doomed  to  support  the 
tottering  throne,  and  reinstate  in  safety  the  falling  monarch. 

Impressed  with  such  proud  convictions,  he  wrote  to  the 
King,  urging  him  to  advance  to  the  northern  border,  and 
form  a  junction  with  his  victorious  army  ;  and  conclud- 
ing his  request  with  the  words  which  Joab,  the  lieutenant 
of  King  David,  is  recorded  in  Scripture  to  have  used  to 
the  King  of  Israel, — "  I  have  fought  against  Rabbah,  and 
have  taken  the  city  of  waters.  Now  therefore  gather  the 
rest  of  the  people  together,  and  encamp  against  the  city, 
and  take  it ;  lest  I  take  the  city,  and  it  be  called  after  my 
name." 

While  Montrose  was  thus  urging  King  Charles,  by  the 
brilliant  prospects  which  he  held  out,  to  throw  himself  on 
his  protection,  his  own  army  mouldered  away  and  dis- 
persed, even  in  a  greater  degree  than  had  been  the  case 
after  his  less  distinguished  success.  The  Highland  clans 
ivent  home  to  get  in  their  harvest,  and  place  their  spoil  in 
safety.  It  was  needless  and  useless  to  refuse  them  leave, 
for  they  were  determined  to  take  it.  The  north-country 
gentlemen  also,  wearied  of  the  toils  of  the  campaign,  left 
liim  in  numbers  ;  so  that  when  Montrose  received,  by  the 
hards  of  Sir  Robert  Spottiswood,  the  King's  commission 


CAPTAIN-GENERAL.  137 

nnder  the  Great  Seal,  naming  him  Captain-General  and 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Scotland,  he  commanded  a  force 
scarcely  more  effective  than  when  he  was  wandering 
through  Athole  and  Badenoch.  The  King's  orders, 
however,  and  his  own  indomitable  spirit  of  enterprise, 
determined  his  march  towards  the  Borders. 

About  fifty  years  before,  these  districts  would  have 
supplied  him,  even  upon  the  lighting  of  their  beacons, 
•with  ten  thousand  cavalry,  as  fond  of  fighting  and  plun- 
der as  any  Highlander  in  his  army.  But  that  period, 
as  I  have  told  you,  had  passed  away.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  Border-land  had  become  peaceful,  and  the  chiefs 
and  lords,  whose  influence  might  still  have  called  them 
out  to  arms,  were  hostile  to  the  Crown,  or,  at  best,  hike 
warm  in  its  cause.  The  Earl  of  Buccleuch,  and  his 
friends  of  the  name  of  Scott,  who  had  never  forgotten 
the  offence  given  by  the  revocation  of  James's  donations 
to  their  chief,  were  violent  Covenanters,  and  had  sent  a 
strong  clan-regiment  with  the  Earl  of  Leven  and  the  Scot- 
tish auxiliaries.  Traquair,  Eoxburghe,  and  Hume,  all 
entertained,  or  affected,  regard  to  the  King,  but  made 
no  effectual  effort  in  raising  men.  The  once  formidable 
name  of  Douglas,  and  the  exertions  of  the  Earl  of  Annan- 
dale,  could  only  assemble  some  few  troops  of  horse,  whom 
the  historian,  Bishop  Guthrie,  describes  as  truthless 
trained  bands.  Montrose  expected  to  meet  a  body  of 
more  regular  cavalry,  who  were  to  be  despatched  from 
England ;  but  the  King's  continued  misfortunes  pre- 
vented him  from  making  such  a  diversion. 

Meanwhile  the  Scottish  army  in  England  received  an 
account  of  the  despair  to  which  the  battle  of  Kilsyth 
had  reduced  the  Convention  of  Estates,  and  learned  that 
several  of  its  most  distinguished  members  were  already 
exiles,  having  fled  to  Berwick  and  other  strong  places 
on  the  Border,  which  were  garrisoned  by  the  Parliamen- 
tary forces.  The  importance  of  the  crisis  was  felt,  and 
David  Lesley  was  despatched,  at  the  head  of  five  or  six 
thousand  men,  chiefly  cavalry,  and  the  flower  of  the 


138  BATTLE  OP  PHILIPnAUQH. 

Scottish  auxiliary  array,  with  the  charge  of  checking 
the  triumphs  of  Montrose. 

Lesley  crossed  the  Border  at  Berwick,  and  proceeded 
on  his  march,  as  if  it  had  been  his  view  to  get  between 
Montrose  and  the  Highlands,  and  to  prevent  his  again 
receiving  assistance  from  his  faithful  mountaineers.  But 
that  sagacious  general's  intentions  were  of  a  more  deci- 
sive character ;  for  learning  that  Montrose,  with  his  little 
army,  lay  quartered  in  profound  security  near  Selkirk, 
he  suddenly  altered  his  march,  left  the  Edinburgh  road 
when  he  came  to  Edgebucklingbrae,  crossed  the  country 
to  Middleton,  and  then  turning  southward,  descended 
the  vale  of  the  Gala  to  Melrose,  in  which  place,  and  the 
adjacent  hamlets,  he  quartered  his  army  for  the  night. 

Montrose's  infantry,  meanwhile,  lay  encamped  on  an 
elevated  place,  called  Philiphaugh,  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ettrick,  while  his  cavalry,  with  their  distinguished  gen- 
eral in  person,  were  quartered  in  the  town  of  Selkirk ;  a 
considerable  stream  being  thus  interposed  betwixt  the  two 
parts  of  his  army,  which  should  have  been  so  stationed  as 
to  be  ready  to  support  each  other  on  a  sudden  alarm. 
But  Montrose  had  no  information  of  the  vicinity  of  Les- 
ley, though  the  Covenanters  had  passed  the  night  within 
five  miles  of  his  camp.  This  indicates  that  he  must  have 
been  very  ill  served  by  his  own  patrols,  and  that  his  cause 
must  have  been  unpopular  in  that  part  of  the  country, 
since  a  single  horseman,  at  the  expense  of  half  an  hour's 
gallop,  might  have  put  him  fully  on  his  guard. 

On  the  morning  of  the  13th  September,  1645,  Lesley, 
under  cover  of  a  thick  mist,  approached  Montrose's  camp, 
and  had  the  merit,  by  his  dexterity  and  vigilance,  of  sur- 
prising him  whom  his  enemies  had  never  before  found 
unprepared.  The  Covenanting  general  divided  his  troops 
into  two  divisions,  and  attacked  both  flanks  of  the  enemy 
at  the  same  time.  Those  on  the  left  made  but  a  tumult- 
uary and  imperfect  resistance ;  the  right  wing,  supported 
by  a  wood,  fought  in  a  manner  worthy  of  their  general's 
fame.  Montrose  himself,  roused  by  the  firing  and  noise 
of  the  action,  hastily  assembled  his  cavalry,  crossed  the 


MONTROSE    LEAVES    SCOTLAND.  13!) 

Ettrick,  and  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  recover  the 
victory,  omitting  nothing  which  courage  or  skill  could 
achieve,  to  rally  his  followers.  But  when  at  length  left 
with  only  thirty  horse,  he  was  compelled  to  fly,  and,  re- 
treating up  the  Yarrow,  crossed  into  the  vale  of  Tweed, 
and  readied  Peebles,  where  some  of  his  followers  joined 
him. 

The  defeated  army  suffered  severely.  The  prisoners 
taken  by  the  Covenanters  were  massacred  without  mercy, 
and  in  cold  blood.  They  were  shot  in  the  court-yard  of 
Newark  Castle,  upon  Yarrow,  and  their  bodies  hastily  inter- 
red at  a  place,  called,  from  that  circumstance,  Slainmen's- 
lee.  The  ground  being,  about  twenty  years  since,  opened 
for  the  foundation  of  a  school-house,  the  bones  and  skulls, 
which  were  dug  up  in  great  quantity,  plainly  showed  the 
truth  of  the  country  tradition.  Many  cavaliers,  both  offi- 
cers and  others,  men  of  birth  and  character,  the  compan- 
ions of  Montrose's  many  triumphs,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  victors,  and  were,  as  we  shall  afterwards  see,  put  to  an 
ignominious  death.  The  prisoners,  both  of  high  and  low 
degree,  would  have  been  more  numerous,  but  for  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Harehead-wood,  into  which  the  fugitives 
escaped.  Such  were  the  immediate  consequences  of  this 
battle ;  concerning  which,  the  country  people  often  quote 
the  following  lines  : — * 

At  Philiphauifh  the  fray  begu'd ; 

At  Harchead-wood  it  ended. 
The  Scots  out  owre  the  Grahams  they  rode, 

Sac  merrily  they  bended. 

Montrose,  after  this  disastrous  action,  retreated  agaiii 
into  the  Highlands,  where  he  once  more  assembled  an 
army  of  mountaineers.  But  his  motions  ceased  to  be  of 
the  consequence  which  they  had  acquired,  before  he  had 
experienced  defeat.  General  Middleton,  a  man  of  mili- 
tary talents,  but  a  soldier  of  fortune,  was  despatched 
against  him  by  the  Convention  of  Estates,  who  were  eagei 
to  recover  the  same  power  in  the  Highlands,  in  which 
David  Lesley's  victory  had  repossessed  them  throughout 
the  Lowlands. 


140  EXECUTION    OF    PRISONERS 

While  thus  engaged  in  an  obscure  mountain  warfare, 
the  King,  in  total  despair  of  Montrose's  safety,  sent  orders 
to  him  to  dissolve  his  army,  and  to  provide  for  his  perso- 
nal security,  by  leaving  the  kingdom.  He  would  not 
obey  the  first  order,  concluding  it  had  been  extorted  from 
the  monarch.  To  a  second,  and  more  peremptory  in- 
junction, he  yielded  obedience,  and,  disbanding  his  army, 
embarked  in  a  brig  bound  for  Bergen  in  Norway,  with  a 
few  adherents,  who  were  too  obnoxious  to  the  Covenant- 
ers to  permit  of  their  remaining  in  Scotland.  Lest  their 
little  vessel  should  be  searched  by  an  English  ship  of  war, 
Montrose  wore  the  disguise  of  a  domestic,  and  passed  fo.- 
the  servant  of  his  chaplain  and  biographer,  Dr.  George 
Wishart.  You  may  remember  that  he  wore  a  simiU. 
disguise  on  entering  Scotland,  in  order  to  commence  his 
undertaking. 

This,  and  the  preceding  chapter,  give  an  account  of 
the  brief,  but  brilliant  period  of  Montrose's  success.  A 
future  one  will  contain  the  melancholy  conclusion  of  his 
exertions,  and  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Interference  of  the  Presbyterian  Clergy  to  procuie  the 
Execution  of  the  Prisoner*  taken  at  PhiUphaitgh — 
Reflections  on  the  Unhappy  Effects  of  Religious  Per- 
secution— Respective  Views  of  the  Independents  and 
Presbyterians — Cromwell's  Success — King  Charles's 
Surrender  to  the  Scottish  Army — Their  Surrender  of 
him  to  the  English  Parliament. 

I  MUST  now  tell  you  the  fate  of  the  unfortunate  cava- 
liers who  had  been  made  prisoners  at  Philiphaugh.  The 
barbarous  treatment  of  the  common  men  you  are  alreaoy 
acquainted  with. 

Argyle,  the  leader  of  the  Convention  of  Estates,  had 
to  resent  the  devastation  of  his  country,  and  the  destruc- 


1AKEN    AT    PI1ILIPHA.UGH.  141 

tion  of  his  castles ;  and  his  desire  of  vengeance  was  so 
common  to  the  age,  that  it  would  have  been  accounted 
neglect  of  his  duty  to  his  slain  kinsmen  and  plundered 
clan,  if  he  had  let  slip  the  favourable  opportunity  of  ex- 
acting blood  for  blood.  Other  noblemen  of  the  Conven- 
tion had  similar  motives  ;  and,  besides,  they  had  all  been 
heartily  alarmed  at  Montrose's  success  ;  and  nothing 
makes  men  more  pitiless  than  the  recollection  of  recent 
fears.  It  ought  partly  to  have  assuaged  these  vindictive 
feelings,  that  Montrose's  ravages,  although  they  were  suffi- 
ciently wasting,  were  less  encouraged  by  the  officers, 
than  arising  from  the  uncontrollable  license  of  an  unpaid 
soldiery.  The  prisoners  had  always  been  treated  with 
honour  and  humanity,  and  frequently  dismissed  on  parole. 
So  that,  if  the  fate  of  Montrose's  companions  had  depend- 
ed on  the  Convention  alone,  it  is  possible,  that  almost  all 
might  have  been  set  at  liberty  upon  moderate  conditions. 
But  unfortunately,  the  Presbyterian  clergy  thought  proper 
to  interfere  strenuously  between  the  prisoners,  and  the 
mercy  which  they  might  otherwise  have  experienced. 

And  here  it  must  be  owned,  that  the  Presbyterian  min- 
isters of  that  period  were  in  some  respects  a  different  kind 
of  men  from  their  predecessors,  in  the  reign  of  James  VI. 
Malice  cannot,  indeed,  accuse  them  of  abusing  the  power 
which  they  had  acquired  since  their  success  in  1640,  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  either  their  own  individual  rev- 
enues, or  those  of  the  church  ;  nor  had  the  system  of 
strict  morality,  by  which  they  were  distinguished,  been  in 
any  degree  slackened.  They  remained  in  triumph,  as 
they  had  been  in  suffering,  honourably  poor  and  rigidly 
moral.  But  yet,  though  inaccessible  to  the  temptations 
of -avarice  or  worldly  pleasure,  the  Presbyterian  clergy  of 
this  period  cannot  he  said  to  have  been  superior  to  ambi- 
tion and  the  desire  of  power  ;  and  as  they  were  naturally 
apt  to  think  that  the  advancement  of  religion  was  best 
secured  bv  the  influence  of  the  church,  they  were  dis- 
posed to  extend  that  influence  by  the  strictest  exertion  of 
domestic  disci pline.  Inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  indi- 
viduals was  carried  on  by  the  Church-courts  with  hide- 


142  KXKCUTION    OF    PRISONERS 

cent  eagerness ;  and  faults  or  follies,  much  fitter  for  pri- 
vate censure  and  admonition,  were  brought  forward  in  the 
face  of  the  public  congregation.  The  hearers  were  charged 
every  Sabbath-day,  that  each  individual  should  commu- 
nicate to  the  Kirk-Session  (a  court  composed  of  the  cler- 
gyman and  certain  selected  laymen  of  the  parish)  what- 
ever matter  of  scandal  or  offence  against  religion  and 
morality  should  come  to  their  ears ;  and  thus  an  inquisi- 
torial power  was  exercised  by  one  half  of  the  parish  over 
the  other.  This  was  well  meant,  but  had  ill  consequences. 
Every  idle  story  being  made  the  subject  of  anxious  inves- 
tigation, the  private  happiness  of  families  was  disturbed, 
and  discord  and  suspicion  were  sown  where  mutual  confi- 
dence is  most  necessary. 

This  love  of  exercising  authority  in  families,  was  nat- 
urally connected  with  a  desire  to  maintain  the  high  influ- 
ence in  the  state,  which  the  Presbyterian  church  had 
acquired  since  the  downfall  of  prelacy.  The  clergy  had 
become  used  to  consider  their  peculiar  form  of  church 
government,  which  unquestionably  has  many  excellences, 
as  something  almost  as  essential  as  religion  itself;  and  it 
was  but  one  step  farther,  to  censure  any  who  manifested 
a  design  to  destroy  the  system,  or  limit  the  power,  of  the 
Presbyterian  discipline,  as  an  enemy  to  religion  of  every 
kind,  nay,  even  to  the  Deity  himself.  Such  opinions  were 
particularly  strong  amongst  those  of  the  clergy  who  at- 
tended the  armies  in  the  field,  seconded  them  by  encour- 
agement from  the  pulpits,  or  aided  them  by  actually  as- 
suming arms  themselves.  The  ardour  of  such  men  grew 
naturally  more  enthusiastic  in  proportion  to  the  opposition 
they  met  with,  and  the  dangers  they  encountered.  The 
sights  arid  sentiments  which  attend  civil  conflict,  are  of  a 
kind  to  reconcile  the  human  heart,  however  generous  and 
humane  by  nature,  to  severe  language  and  cruel  actions. 
Accordingly,  we  cannot  be  surprised  to  find  that  some  of 
the  clergy  forgot  that  a  malignant,  so  they  called  a  Roy- 
alist, was  still  a  countryman  and  fellow  Christian,  born 
under  the  same  government,  and  hoping  to  be  saved  by 
the  power  of  the  same  creed,  with  themselves ;  or  that 


TAKEN    AT    P1I1LIPHAUGH.  143 

they  directed  against  such  persons  those  texts  of  Script  jre, 
in  which  the  Jews  were,  hy  special  commission,  com- 
manded to  extirpate  the  heathen  inhabitants  of  the  Prom- 
ised Land. 

One  of  these  preachers  enlarged  on  such  a  topic  after 
Lesley's  victory,  and  chose  his  text  from  the  15th  chap- 
ter of  1st  Samuel,  where  the  prophet  rebukes  Saul  for 
sparing  the  King  of  the  Amalekites,  and  for  having  saved 
some  part  of  the  flocks  and  herds  of  that  people,  which 
Heaven  had  devoted  to  utter  destruction, — "  What  mean- 
eth  this  bleating  of  sheep  in  mine  ears?"  In  his  sermon, 
lie  said  that  Heaven  demanded  the  blood  of  the  prisoners 
taken  at  Philiphaugh,  as  devoted  by  the  Divine  command 
to  destruction  ;  nor  could  the  sins  of  the  people  be  other- 
wise atoned  for,  or  the  wrath  of  Heaven  averted  from  the 
land.  It  is  probable,  that  the  preacher  was  himself  sat- 
isfied with  the  doctrine  which  he  promulgated  ;  for  it  is 
wonderful  how  people's  judgment  is  blinded  by  their 
passions,  and  how  apt  we  are  to  find  plausible,  and  even 
satisfactory  reasons,  for  doing  what  our  interest,  or  that  of 
the  party  we  have  embraced,  strongly  recommends. 

The  Parliament,  consisting  entirely  of  Covenanters 
instigated  by  the  importunity  of  the  clergy,  condemned 
eight  of  the  most  distinguished  cavaliers  to  execution. 
Four  wers  appointed  to  suffer  at  St.  Andrews,  that  their 
blood  might  be  an  atonement,  as  the  phrase  went,  for  the 
number  of  men  (said  to  exceed  five  thousand)  whom  the 
county  of  Fife  had  lost  during  Montrose's  wars.  Lord 
Ogilvy  was  the  first  of  these  ;  but  that  young  nobleman 
escaped  from  prison  and  death  in  his  sister's  clothes. 
Colonel  Nathaniel  Gordon,  one  of  the  bravest  men  and 
best  soldiers  in  Europe,  and  six  other  cavaliers  of  the  first 
distinction,  were  actually  executed. 

We  may  particularly  distinguish  the  fate  of  Sir  Robert 
Spottiswoovi,  who,  when  the  wars  broke  out,  was  Lord 
President  of  the  Court  of  Session,  and  accounted  a  judge 
of  great  talent  and  learning.  He  had  never  borne  arms  ; 
c  at  the  crime  of  having  brought  to  Montrose  his  com- 
as  Capxam-Generil  of  Scotland,  was  though! 


144  EXECUTION    OF    PRISONERS 

qmte  worthy  of  death,  without  any  further  act  of  treason 
against  the  Estates.  When  on  the  scaffold,  lie  vindicat- 
ed his  conduct  with  the  dignity  of  a  judge,  and  the  tal- 
ents of  a  lawyer.  He  was  silenced  by  the  Provost  of  St. 
Andrews,  who  had  formerly  been  a  servant  of  his  father's 
when  Prelate  of  that  city.  The  victim  submitted  to  this 
indignity  with  calmness,  and  betook  himself  to  his  private 
devotions.  He  was  even  in  this  task  interrupted  by  the 
Presbyterian  minister  in  attendance,  who  demanded  of 
him  whether  he  desired  the  benefit  of  his  prayers,  and 
those  of  the  assembled  people.  Sir  Robert  replied,  that 
he  earnestly  demanded  the  prayers  of  the  people,  but 
rejected  those  of  the  speaker  ;  for  that,  in  his  opinion, 
God  had  expressed  his  displeasure  against  Scotland,  by 
sending  a  lying  spirit  into  the  mouth  of  the  prophets, — a 
far  greater  curse,  lie  said,  than  those  of  sword,  fire,  and 
pestilence.  An  old  servant  of  his  family  took  care  of  his 
body,  and  buried  him  privately  ;  and  it  is  said  that  this 
faithful  domestic,  passing  through  the  market-place  a  day 
or  two  afterwards,  and  seeing  the  scaffold  on  which  his 
master  had  suffered  still  unremoved,  and  stained  with  his 
blood,  was  so  greatly  affected,  that  he  sunk  down  in  a 
swoon,  and  died  as  they  were  lifting  him  over  his  own 
threshold.  Such  are  the  terrible  scenes  which  civil  dis- 
cord gives  occasion  to ;  and,  my  dear  child,  you  will 
judge  very  wrong  if  you  suppose  them  peculiar  to  one 
side  or  the  other  of  the  contending  parties  in  the  present 
case.  You  will  learn  hereafter,  that  the  same  disposition 
to  abuse  power,  which  is  common,  I  fear,  to  all  who  pos- 
sess it  in  an  unlimited  degree,  was  exercised  by  the  Epis- 
copalian party  over  the  Presbyterians,  when  their  hour  of 
authority  revived. 

We  must  now  turn  our  thoughts  to  England,  the  stage 
on  which  the  most  important  scenes  were  acting,  to  which 
those  in  Scotland  can  only  be  termed  very  subordinate. 
And  here  I  may  remark,  that,  greatly  to  the  honour  of 
the  English  nation,  owing,  perhaps,  to  the  natural  generos- 
ity and  good-humour  of  the  people,  or  to  the  superior 
influence  of  civilization,  their  civil  war,  though  contested 


TAKEN    AT    P1IIMPHAUGH.  145 

witi  the  utmost  fury  in  the  open  field,  was  not  marked 
by  anything  approaching  to  the  violent  atrocities  of  the 
Irish,  or  the  fierce  and  ruthless  devastation  exercised  by 
the  Scottish  combatants.  The  days  of  deadly  feud  had 
been  long  past,  if  the  English  ever  knew  that  infernal 
custom,  and  the  spirit  of  malice  and  hatred  which  it  fos- 
tered had  no  existence  in  that  country.  The  English 
parties  contended  manfully  in  battle,  but  unless  in  the 
storming  of  towns,  when  all  evil  passions  are  afloat,  they 
seem  seldom  to  have  been  guilty  of  cruelty  or  wasteful 
ravage.  They  combated  like  men  who  have  quarrelled 
on  some  special  point,  but,  having  had  no  ill-will  against 
each  other  before,  are  resolved  to  fight  it  out  fairly,  with- 
out bearing  malice.  On  the  contrary,  the  cause  of  Pre- 
lacy or  Presbytery,  King  or  Parliament,  was  often  what 
was  least  in  the  thoughts  of  the  Scottish  barons,  who  made 
such  phrases  indeed  the  pretext  for  the  war,  but  in  fact 
looked  forward  to  indulging,  at  the  expense  of  some  rival 
family,  the  treasured  vengeance  of  a  hundred  years. 

But  though  the  English  spirit  did  not  introduce  into 
their  civil  war  the  savage  aspect  of  the  Scottish  feuds, 
they  were  not  free  from  the  religious  dissensions,  which 
formed  another  curse  of  the  age.  I  have  already  said, 
that  the  party  which  opposed  itself  to  the  King  and  the 
Church  of  England,  was  with  the  followers  of  the  Par- 
liament, and  the  Parliament  itself,  divided  into  two  fac- 
tions, that  of  the  Presbyterians,  and  that  of  the  Inde- 
pendents. I  have  also  generally  mentioned  the  points  on 
which  these  two  parties  differed.  I  must  now  notice  them 
more  particularly. 

The  Presbyterian  establishment,  as  I  have  often  stated, 
differs  from  that  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  republic,  all  the  members  of  which  are  on  a 
footing  of  equality,  differs  from  a  monarchical  constitution. 
In  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  all  the  ministers  are  on  an  equal- 
ity ;  in  the  Church  of  England,  there  is  a  gradation  of 
rank?,  ascending  from  the  lowest  order  of  clergymen  to 
the  rank  of  bishop.  But  e<vh  system  is  alike  founded 
889 


I  16  RKLIGIOUS    PERSECUTION. 

upon  the  institution  of  a  body  of  men,  qualifi  >d  by  stud- 
ies of  a  peculiar  nature  to  become  preacbers  of  the  gospel, 
and  obliged  to  show  they  are  so  qualified,  by  undergoing 
trials  and  examinations  of  their  learning  and  capacity, 
before  they  can  take  holy  orders,  that  is  to  say,  become 
clergymen.  It  is  also  the  rule  alike  of  Episcopalians  and 
Presbyterians,  that  the  National  Church,  as  existing  in  its 
courts  and  judicatories,  has  power  to  censure,  suspend 
from  their  functions,  and  depose  from  their  clerical  char- 
acter and  clerical  charge,  such  of  its  members  as,  either 
by  immoral  and  wicked  conduct,  or  by  preaching  and 
teaching  doctrines  inconsistent  with  the  public  creed,  shall 
render  themselves  unfit  to  execute  the  trust  reposed  in 
them.  And  further,  both  these  national  churches  main- 
tain, that  such  courts  and  judicatories  have  power  over 
their  hearers,  and  those  who  live  in  communion  with  them, 
to  rebuke  transgressors  of  every  kind,  and  to  admonish 
them  to  repentance  ;  and  if  such  admonitions  are  neg- 
lected, to  expel  them  from  the  congregation  by  the  sen- 
tence of  excommunication. 

Thus  far  most  Christian  churches  agree  ;  and  thus  far 
the  claims  and  rights  of  a  national  church  are  highly  fa- 
vourable to  the  existence  of  a  regular  government ;  since 
reason,  as  well  as  the  general  usage  of  the  religious  world, 
sanctions  the  establishment  of  the  clergy  as  a  body  of  men 
separated  from  the  general  class  of  society,  that  they  may 
set  an  example  of  regularity  of  life  by  the  purity  of  their 
morals.  Thus  set  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  community, 
they  are  supported  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  in  order 
that  the  reverence  due  to  them  may  not  be  lessened  by 
their  being  compelled,  for  the  sake  of  subsistence,  to 
mingle  in  the  ordinary  business  of  life,  and  share  the  cares 
and  solicitudes  incidental  to  those  who  must  labour  foi 
their  daily  bread. 

How  far  the  civil  magistrate  can  be  wisely  intruste'l 
with  the  power  of  enforcing  spiritual  censures,  or  second- 
ing the  efforts  of  the  church  to  obtain  general  conformity, 
by  inflicting  the  penalties  of  fines,  imprisonment,  bodily 
punishment,  and  death  itself,  upon  those  who  differ  in 


RELIGIOUS    PERSECUTION.  M7 

doctrina.  points  from  the  established  teligion,  is  a  vary 
different  question.  It  is  no  doubt  trut,  that  wild  sects 
have  sometimes  started  up,  whose  doctrines  have  involv- 
ed direct  danger  to  the  state.  But  such  offenders  ought 
to  be  punished,  not  as  offenders  against  the  church,  but 
as  transgressors  against  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.  While 
tneir  opinions  remain  merely  speculative,  they  may  de- 
serve expulsion  from  the  national  church,  w'th  which  in- 
deed they  could  consistently  desire  no  communion.  But 
while  they  do  not  carry  these  opinions  into  execution,  by 
any  treasonable  act,  it  does  not  appear  the  province  of  the 
civil  magistrate  to  punish  them  for  opinions  only.  And 
if  the  zeal  of  such  sectaries  should  drive  them  into  action, 
they  deserve  punishment,  not  for  holding  unchristian  doc- 
trines, but  for  transgressing  the  civil  laws  of  the  realm. 
This  distinction  was  little  understood  in  the  days  we  write 
of,  and  neither  the  English  nor  the  Scottish  church  can 
be  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  attempting  to  force  men's 
consciences,  by  criminal  persecutions  for  acts  of  non- 
conformity, though  not  accompanied  by  any  civil  trespass. 

Experience  and  increasing  knowledge  have  taught  the 
present  generation,  that  such  severities  have  always  in- 
creased the  evil  they  were  intended  to  cure  ;  and  that 
mild  admonition,  patient  instruction,  and  a  good  example, 
may  gain  many  a  convert  to  the  established  churches, 
whom  persecution  and  violence  would  have  only  confirm- 
ed in  his  peculiar  opinions.  You  have  read  the  fable  of 
the  traveller,  who  wrapped  his  cloak  the  faster  about  him 
when  the  storm  blew  loud,  but  threw  it  aside  in  the  serene 
beams  of  the  sunshine.  It  applies  to  the  subject  I  have 
been  speaking  of,  as  much  as  to  the  advantages  of  gentle- 
ness and  mild  persuasion  in  social  life. 

I  return  to  the  distinction  between  the  Independents  and 
Presbyterians  during  the  civil  wars  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
I.  The  latter,  as  you  already  know,  stood  strongly  out 
for  a  national  church  and  an  established  clergy,  with  full 
powers  to  bind  and  loose,  and  maintained  by  the  support 
of  the  civil  government.  This  had  been  fully  established 


148       INDEPENDENTS  AND  PRESBYTERIANS. 

in  Scotland,  and  it  was  the  ardent  wish  of  its  professors 
that  the  English  should  adopt  the  same  system.  Indeed, 
it  was  in  the  hope  of  attaining  this  grand  ohject  that  the 
consent  of  the  Scottish  Convention  of  Estates  was  given, 
to  sending  the  auxiliary  army  to  England  ;  and  they 
thought  the  acceptance  of  the  Presbyterian  discipline  in 
that  country  was  secured  by  the  terms  of  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant.  But  the  Independents  had,  from 
the  beginning,  entertained  the  secret  resolution  of  opposing 
the  establishment  of  a  national  church  of  any  kind  in 
England. 

The  opinions  of  these  sectaries  stood  thus  on  matters 
of  church  government.  Every  one,  they  said,  had  a 
right  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  draw  such  conclusions 
respecting  the  doctrines  which  are  there  inculcated,  as 
his  own  private  judgment  should  hold  most  conformable 
to  them.  They  went  farther,  and  said,  that  every  man 
who  felt  himself  called  upon  to  communicate  to  others 
the  conclusions  which  he  had  derived  from  reading  the 
Bible,  and  meditating  on  its  contents,  had  a  right,  and  a 
call  from  Heaven,  to  preach  and  teach  the  peculiar  belief 
which  he  had  thus  adopted.  It  was  no  matter  what  was 
the  individual's  condition  in  life,  or  what  had  been  the 
course  of  his  education  ;  he  was  equally  entitled,  in  their 
opinion,  to  act  as  a  minister,  as  if  he  had  studied  for 
twenty  years,  and  taken  orders  from  a  bishop,  or  from  a 
presbytery.  If  he  could  prevail  on  six  persons  to  admit 
his  doctrine,  these  six  persons  made  a  Christian  congre- 
gation ;  and,  as  far  as  religious  instruction  was  concern- 
ed, he  became  their  spiritual  head  and  teacher.  Be  his 
hearers  many  or  few,  they  were  thenceforward  his  sheep, 
and  he  their  spiritual  shepherd.  But  to  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  except  his  own  congregation,  the  Independents 
held, 'that  every  preacher  remained  an  ordinary  layman, 
having  no  claim  on  the  state  for  revenue  or  subsistence. 
If  he  could  persuade  his  congregation  to  contribute  to 
his  support,  he  was  the  more  fortunate.  If  not,  he  lived 
by  hi?  ordinary  calling,  of  a  baker,  a  tailor,  or  a  shoe- 


CROMWELL.  149 

maker,  and  consoled  himself  that  he  resembled  St.  Paih, 
who  wrought  with  his  hands  for  his  livelihood. 

Of  the  congregations  or  sects  thus  formed,  there  were 
in  England  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  most  of  them 
disagreeing  from  each  other  in  doctrine,  and  only  united 
hy  the  common  opinion,  that  each  private  Christian  had 
a  right  to  teach  or  to  listen  to  whatever  doctrines  he 
thought  fit ;  that  there  ought  to  exist  no  church  courts  of 
any  kind  ;  that  the  character  of  a  preacher  was  only  to 
be  recognised  by  those  who  chose  to  be  taught ;  and 
that,  in  any  more  extensive  point  of  view,  there  ought  not 
to  exist  any  body  of  priests  or  clergymen  by  profession, 
any  church  government,  or  church  judicatories,  or  any 
other  mode  of  enforcing  religious  doctrine,  save  by  teach- 
ing it  from  the  pulpit,  and  admonishing  the  sinner,  or,  if 
necessary,  expelling  him  from  the  congregation.  This 
last,  indeed,  could  be  no  great  infliction  where  there  were 
so  many  churches  ready  to  receive  him,  or  where,  if  he 
pleased,  he  might  set  up  a  church  for  himself. 

The  Sectaries,  as  the  Independents  were  termed,  en- 
tertained, as  may  be  supposed,  very  wild  doctrines.  Men 
of  an  enthusiastic  spirit,  and  sometimes  a  crazed  imagin- 
ation, as  opinionative  as  they  were  ignorant,  and  many  of 
them  as  ignorant  as  the  lowest  vulgar,  broached  an  end- 
less variety  of  heresies,  some  of  them  scandalous,  some 
oven  blasphemous  ;  others,  except  on  account  of  the  se- 
rious subject  they  referred  to,  extremely  ludicrous. 

But  the  preachers  and  hearers  of  these  strange  doc- 
trines were  not  confined  to  the  vulgar  and  ignorant  Too 
much  learning  made  some  men  mad.  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
one  of  the  subtlest  politicians  in  England,  and  Milton, 
one  of  the  greatest  poets  ever  born,  caught  the  spirit  of 
the  times,  and  became  Independents.  But  above  all, 
Oliver  Cromwell,  destined  to  rise  to  the  supreme  power 
in  England,  was  of  that  form  of  religion. 

This  remarkable  person  was  of  honourable  descent, 
but,  inheriting  a  small  fortune,  had  practised  at  one  time 
the  occupation  of  a  brewer.  After  a  course  of  gaiety 


150  INDEPENDENTS. 

and  profligacy  during  early  youth,  he  caught  a  strong 
taint  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  times,  and  distinguished 
himself  by  his  aversion  to  Prelacy,  and  his  zealous  oppo- 
sition to  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  King.  He  became 
a  member  of  Parliament,  but,  as  he  spoke  indifferently, 
made  no  figure  in  that  body.  When,  however,  the  Par 
liatnent  raised  their  army,  the  military  talents  of  Crom 
well  made  him  early  distinguished.  It  was  remarked 
that  he  was  uniformly  successful  in  every  contest  in  which 
he  was  personally  engaged,  and  that  he  was  the  first  offi- 
cer who  could  train  and  bring  to  the  field  a  body  of  cav- 
alry capable  of  meeting  the  shock  of  the  Cavaliers,  not- 
withstanding their  high  birth,  lofty  courage,  and  chivalrous 
bravery.  His  regiment  of  Ironsides,  as  they  were  called, 
from  the  cuirasses  which  the  men  wore,  were  carefully 
exercised,  and  accustomed  to  strict  military  discipline, 
while  their  courage  was  exalted  by  the  enthusiasm  which 
their  commander  contrived  to  inspire.  He  preached  to 
them  himself,  prayed  for  them  and  with  them,  and  attend- 
ed with  an  air  of  edification  to  any  who  chose  to  preach 
or  pray  in  return.  The  attention  of  these  military  fana- 
tics was  so  fixed  upon  the  mysteries  of  the  next  world, 
that  death  was  no  terror  to  them  ;  and  the  fiery  valour 
of  the  Cavaliers  was  encountered  and  repelled,  by  men 
who  fought  for  their  own  ideas  of  religion  as  determinedly 
as  their  enemies  did  for  honour  and  loyalty.  The  spirit 
of  the  Independent  sectaries  spread  generally  through 
the  army,  and  the  Parliament  possessed  no  troops  so  ex- 
cellent as  those  who  followed  these  doctrines. 

The  great  difference  betwixt  ihe  Presbyterians  and 
Independents  consisted,  as  I  have  told  you,  in  the  desire 
of  the  former  to  establish  their  form  of  religion  and 
church  government  as  national,  and  compel  a  general 
acquiescence  in  their  articles  of  faith.  For  this,  a  con- 
vention of  the  most  learned  and  able  divines  was  assem- 
bled at  Westminster,  who  settled  the  religious  creed  ol 
the  intended  church  according  to  the  utmost  rigour  of  the 
Presbyterian  creed.  This  assumption  of  exclusive  power 
over  the  conscience  alarmed  the  Independents,  and  in  the 


SELF-DENYING    ORDINANCE.  151 

dispute  which  ensued,  the  consciousness  of  their  own  in- 
terest with  the  army  gave  them  new  courage  and  new 
pretensions. 

At  first  the  Independent  sectaries  had  been  contented 
to  let  the  Presbyterians  of  England,  a  numerous  and 
wealthy  body,  take  the  lead  in  public  measures.  But  as 
tiieir  own  numbers  increased,  and  their  leaders  became 
formidable  from  their  interest  with  the  army,  they  resist- 
ed the  intention  which  the  Presbyterians  showed  of  es- 
tablishing their  own  faith  in  England  as  well  as  Scotland. 
Sir  Henry  Vane  persuaded  them  to  temporize  a  little 
longer,  since  to  resist  Presbytery  was  to  disgust  the  Scot- 
tish auxiliaries,  enamoured  as  they  were  of  their  national 
system.  "  We  cannot  yet  dispense  with  the  Scots,"  he 
said  ;  "  the  sons  of  Zeruiah  are  still  too  many  for  us." 
But  the  progress  of  the  war  gradually  diminished  the 
strength  of  the  Presbyterian  party,  and  increased  that  of 
the  Independents.  The  Earls  of  Essex  and  Manches- 
ter^ generals  chosen  from  the  former  party,  had  sustained 
many  losses,  which  were  referred  to  incapacity  ;  and  they 
were  accused  of  having  let  slip  advantages,  from  which 
it  was  supposed  they  had  no  wish  to  drive  the  King  to  ex- 
tremity. People  began  to  murmur  against  the  various 
high  offices  in  the  army  and  state  being  occupied  by  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  chiefly  Presbyterians  ;  and  the  pro- 
tracted length  of  the  civil  hostilities  was  imputed  to  the 
desire  of  such  persons  to  hold  in  their  possession  the 
authority  which  the  war  gave  them. 

The  Parliament  felt  that  their  popularity  was  in  dangei 
of  being  lost,  and  looked  about  for  means  of  recovering 
it.  While  their  minds  were  thus  troubled,  Cromwell 
suggested  a  very  artful  proposal.  To  recover  the  confi- 
dence of  the  nation,  the  Members  of  Parliament,  he  said, 
ought  to  resign  all  situations  of  trust  or  power  which  they 
possessed,  and  confine  themselves  exclusively  to  the  dis- 
charge of  their  legislative  duty.  The  Parliament  fell  into 
the  snare.  They  enacted  what  was  called  the  Self-deny- 
ing Ordinance  ;  by  which,  in  order  to  show  their  disin- 
terested patriotism,  the  members  laid  dnwn  all  their  office;.;. 


152          SURRENDER  OF  KING  CHARLES 

civil  and  military,  and  rendered  themselves  incapable  D! 
resuming  them.  This  act  of  self-deprivation  proved  in 
the  event  a  death-blow  to  the  power  of  the  Presbyterians', 
the  places  which  were  thus  simply  resigned,  being  instant- 
ly filled  up  by  the  ablest  men  in  the  Independent  party. 

Two  members  of  Parliament,  however,  were  allowed 
to  retain  command.  The  one  was  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax, 
a  Presbyterian,  whose  military  talents  had  been  highly 
distinguished  during  the  war,  but  who  was  much  undei 
the  influence  of  Oliver  Cromwell.  The  other  was  Crom- 
well himself,  who  had  the  title  of  Lieutenant-General 
only,  but  in  fact  enjoyed,  through  his  influence  over  the 
soldiers,  all  the  advantage  of  supreme  command. 

The  success  of  Cromwell  in  this  grand  measure  led 
to  remodelling  the  army  after  his  own  plan,  in  which  he 
took  care  their  numbers  should  be  recruited,  their  disci 
pline  improved,  and,  above  all,  their  ranks  filled  up  with 
Independents.  The  influence  of  these  changes  was  soon 
felt  in  the  progress  of  the  war.  The  troops  of  the  King 
sustained  various  checks,  and  at  length  a  total  defeat  in 
the  battle  of  Naseby,  from  the  effect  of  which  the  affairs 
of  Charles  could  never  recover.  Loss  after  loss  succeed- 
ed ;  the  strong  places  which  the  Royalists  possessed  were 
taken  one  after  another ;  the  King's  cause  was  totally 
ruined.  The  successes  of  Montrose  had  excited  a  gleam 
of  hope,  which  disappeared  after  his  defeat  at  Philip- 
haugh.  Finally,  King  Charles  was  shut  up  in  the  city 
of  Oxford,  which  had  adhered  to  his  cause  with  the  most 
devoted  loyalty  ;  the  last  army  which  he  had  in  the  field 
was  destroyed  ;  and  he  had  no  alternative  save  to  remain 
in  Oxford  till  he  should  be  taken  prisoner,  to  surrender 
himself  to  his  enemies,  or  to  escape  abroad. 

In  circumstances  so  desperate,  it  was  difficult  to  make 
a  choice.  A  frank  surrender  to  the  Parliament,  or  an  es- 
cape abroad,  would  have  perhaps  been  the  most  advisable 
conduct.  But  the  Parliament  and  their  own  independent 
army  were  now  on  the  brink  of  quarrelling.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  Presbyterian  Church  was  resolved  upon, 
though  onlj  for  a  time  and  in  a  limited  form,  and  both 


TO    THE    SCOTTISH    AIUVTY.  1 53 

parties  were  alike  dissatisfied  ;  the  zealous  Presbyterians, 
because  it  gave  the  Church  courts  too  little  power ;  the 
independents,  because  it  invested  them  with  any  control 
whatever  over  persons  of  a  different  communion.  Amidst 
the  disputes  of  his  opponents,  the  King  hoped  to  find  his 
vay  back  to  the  throne. 

For  this  purpose,  and  to  place  himself  in  a  situation, 
as  he  hoped,  from  whence  to  negotiate  with  stfety, 
Charles  determined  to  surrender  himself  to  that  Scottish 
army  which  had  been  sent  into  England,  under  the  Earl 
of  Leven,  as  auxiliaries  of  the  English  Parliament.  The 
King  concluded  that  he  might  expect  personal  protection, 
if  not  assistance,  from  an  army  composed  of  his  own 
countrymen.  Besides,  the  Scottish  army  had  lately  been 
on  indifferent  terms  with  the  English.  The  Independent 
troops,  who  now  equalled  or  even  excelled  them  in  dis- 
cipline, and  were  actuated  by  an  enthusiasm  which  the 
Scots  did  not  possess,  looked  with  an  evil  eye  on  an  army 
composed  of  foreigners  and  Presbyterians.  The  Eng- 
lish in  general,  as  soon  as  their  assistance  was  no  longer 
necessary,  began  to  regard  their  Scottish  brethren  as  an 
incumbrance  ;  and  the  Parliament,  while  they  supplied 
the  Independent  forces  liberally  with  money  and  provis- 
ions, neglected  the  Scots  in  both  these  essentials,  whose 
honour  and  interest  were  affected  in  proportion.  A  per- 
fect acquaintance  with  the  discontent  of  the  Scottish 
army,  induced  Charles  to  throw  himself  upon  their  pro- 
tection in  his  misfortunes. 

He  left  Oxford  in  disguise,  on  27th  April,  having  only 
two  attendants.  Nine  days  after  his  departure,  he  sur 
prised  the  old  Earl  of  Leven  and  the  Scottish  camp 
who  were  then  forming  the  siege  of  Newark,  by  deliv 
ering  himself  into  their  hands.  The  Scots  received  the 
unfortunate  monarch  with  great  outward  respect,  but 
guarded  his  person  with  vigilance.  They  immediately 
broke  up  the  siege,  and  marched  with  great  speed  to  the 
north,  carrying  the  person  of  the  King  along  with  them, 
and  observing  the  strictest  discipline  on  their  retreat. 
When  their  army  arrived  at  Newcastle,  a  strong  town 
7* 


154  UNSUCCESSFUL    NEGOTIATIONS    FOR 

which  they  themselves  had  taken,  and  where  they  had  a 
garrison,  they  halted  to  await  the  progress  of  negotiations 
at  this  singular  crisis. 

Upon  surrendering  himself  to  the  Scottish  army,  King 
Charles  had  despatched  a  message  to  the  Parliament, 
expressing  his  having  done  so,  desiring  that  they  would 
send  him  such  articles  of  pacification  as  they  should  agree 
upon,  and  offering  to  surrender  Oxford,  Newark,  and 
whatever  other  garrisons  or  strong  places  he  might  still 
possess,  and  order  the  troops  he  had  on  foot  to  lay  down 
their  arms.  The  places  were  surrendered  accordingly, 
honourable  terms  being  allowed  ;  and  the  army  of  Mon- 
trose  in  the  Highlands,  and  such  other  forces  as  the  Roy- 
alists still  maintained  throughout  England,  were  disband- 
ed, as  I  have  already  told  you,  by  the  King's  command. 

The  Parliament  showed  great  moderation,  and  the 
civil  war  seemed  to  be  ended.  The  articlesof  pacifica- 
tion which  they  offered  were  not  more  rigorous  than  the 
desperate  condition  of  the  King  must  have  taught  him  to 
expect.  But  questions  of  religion  interfered  to  prevent 
the  conclusion  of  the  treaty. 

In  proportion  as  the  great  majority  of  the  Parliament 
were  attached  to  the  Presbyterian  forms,  Charles  was 
devoted  to  the  system  of  Episcopacy.  He  deemed  him- 
self bound  by  his  coronation  oath  to  support  the  Church 
of  England,  and  he  would  not  purchase  his  own  restora- 
tion to  the  throne  by  consenting  to  its  being  set  aside. 
Here,  therefore,  the  negotiation  betwixt  the  King  and  his 
Parliament  was  broken  off ;  but  another  was  opened  be- 
tween the  English  Parliament  and  the  Scottish  army, 
concerning  the  disposal  of  the  King's  person. 

If  Charles  could  have  brought  his  mind  to  consent  to 
the  acceptance  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  it 
is  probable  that  he  would  have  gained  all  Scotland  to  his 
side.  This,  however,  would  have  been  granting  to  the 
Scots  what  he  had  refused  to  the  Parliament ;  for  the 
support  of  Presbytery  was  the  essential  object  of  the 
Scottish  invasion.  On  the  other  hand,  it  could  hardly  be 
expected  that  the  Scottish  Convention  of  Estates  should 


A    SETTLEMENT    OF    AFFAIRS.  155 

resign  the  very  point  on  which  they  had  begun  and  con- 
tinued the  war.  The  Church  of  Scotland  sent  iorth  a 
solemn  warning,  that  all  engagement  with  the  King  was 
unlawful.  The  question,  therefore,  was,  what  should  be 
done  with  the  person  of  Charles. 

The  generous  course  would  have  been,  to  have  suffer- 
ed the  King  to  leave  the  Scottish  army  as  freely  as  he 
came  there.  In  that  case  he  might  have  embarked  at 
Tynemouth,  and  found  refuge  in  foreign  countries.  And 
even  if  the  Scots  had  determined  that  the  exigencies  of 
the  times,  and  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  peace  be- 
twixt England  and  Scotland,  together  with  their  engage- 
ments with  the  Parliament  of  England,  demanded  that 
they  should  surrender  the  person  of  their  King  to  that 
body,  the  honour  of  Scotland  was  intimately  concerned 
in  so  conducting  the  transaction,  that  there  should  be  no 
room  for  alleging  that  any  selfish  advantage  was  stipulat- 
ed by  the  Scots  as  a  consequence  of  giving  him  up.  1 
am  almost  ashamed  to  write,  that  this  honourable  consid- 
eration had  no  weight. 

The  Scottish  army  had  a  long  arrear  of  pay  due  to 
them  from  the  English  Parliament,  which  the  latter  had 
refused,  or  at  least  delayed  to  make  forthcoming.  A 
treaty  for  the  settlement  of  these  arrears  had  been  set  on 
foot ;  and  it  had  been  agreed  that  the  Scottish  forces 
should  retreat  into  their  own  country,  upon  payment  of 
two  hundred  thousand  pounds,  which  was  one  half  of  the 
debt  finally  admitted.  Now,  it  is  true  that  these  two 
treaties,  concerning  the  delivery  of  the  King's  person  to 
England,  and  the  payment  by  Parliament  of  their  pecu- 
niary arrears  to  Scotland,  were  kept  separate,  for  the 
sake  of  decency ;  but  it  is  certain,  that  they  not  onlv/ 
coincided  in  point  of  time,  but  bore  upon  and  influenceo 
each  other.  No  man  of  candour  will  pretend  to  believe 
that  the  Parliament  of  England  would  ever  have  paid 
this  considerable  sum,  unless  to  facilitate  their  obtaining 
possession  of  the  King's  person  ;  and  this  sordid  and 
base  transaction,  though  the  work  exclusively  of  a  mer- 
cenary army,  stamped  the  whole  nation  of  Scotland  with 


156  IMPRISONMENT    OF    THE    KINO. 

infamy.  In  foreign  countries  they  were  upbraided  with 
the  shame  of  having  made  their  unfortunate  and  confid- 
ing Sovereign  a  hostage,  whose  liberty  or  surrender  was 
to  depend  on  their  obtaining  payment  of  a  paltry  sum  of 
arrears ;  and  the  English  nation  reproached  them  with 
their  greed  and  treachery,  in  the  popular  rhyme, — 

Traitor  Scot 
Sold  his  King  for  a  groat. 

The  Scottish  army  surrendered  the  person  of  Charles 
to  the  Commissioners  for  the  English  Parliament,  on 
receiving  security  for  their  arrears  of  pay,  and  immedi- 
ately evacuated  Newcastle,  and  marched  for  their  own 
country.  I  am  sorry  to  conclude  the  chapter  with  this 
mercenary  and  dishonourable  transaction ;  but  the  limits 
of  the  work  require  me  to  bring  it  thus  to  a  close. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  King  taken  Prisoner  by  the  English  Army  and 
placed  in  the  Palace  of  Hampton  Court — his  Escape 
to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  imprisonment  in  Carisbroolc 
Castle — Treaty  with  the  Scots,  known  by  the  name  of 
The  Engagement — The  Engagers  enter  England  with 
an  Army,  and  are  Defeated — High  Court  of  Justice 
appointed  to  try  the  King — the  Trial — Execution  of 
Charles  I. 

OUR  last  chapter  concluded  with  the  dishonourable 
transaction  by  which  the  Scottish  army  surrendered 
Charles  I.  into  the  hands  of  the  Parliament  of  England, 
on  receiving  security  for  a  sum  of  arrears  due  to  them  by 
that  body. 

The  Commissioneis  of  Parliament,  thus  possessed   of 
the  King's  person,  conducted   him  as  a  state  prisoner  to 
Holdenby  House,  in  Northumberland,  which  had  been  as- 
signed as  his  temporary  residence ;  but  from  which  a  pow 
er  different  from  theirs  was  soon  about  to  withdraw  him 


THE    KING    TAKEN    PRISONER   BY    THE    ARMY.       lf>7 

The  Independents,  as  I  have  said,  highly  resented  as 
a  tyranny  the  establishment  of  Presbytery,  however  tem- 
porary, or  however  mitigated,  in  the  form  of  a  national 
church  ;  and  were  no  less  displeased,  that  the  army,  whose 
ranks  were  chiefly  filled  with  these  military  saints,  as  they 
called  themselves,  was,  in  the  event  of  peace,  which 
seemed  close  at  hand,  threatened  either  to  be  r:ent  to  Ire- 
land, or  disbanded.  The  discontent  among  the  English 
soldiery  became  general ;  they  saw  that  the  use  made  of 
the  victories,  which  their  valour  had  chiefly  contributed 
to  gain,  would  be  to  reduce  and  disarm  them,  and  send 
out  of  the  kingdom  such  as  might  be  suffered  to  retain 
their  arms  and  military  character.  And  besides  the  loss 
of  pay,  profession,  and  importance,  the  sectaries  had 
every  reason  to  apprehend  the  imposition  of  the  Presby- 
terian yoke,  as  they  termed  the  discipline  of  that  church. 
These  mutinous  dispositions  were  secretly  encouraged 
by  Cromwell,  Ireton,  and  Fleetwood,  officers  of  high 
rank  and  influence,  to  whom  the  Parliament  had  intrust- 
ed the  charge  of  pacifying  them.  At  length  the  army 
assumed  the  appearance  of  a  separate  body  in  the  state, 
whose  affairs  were  managed  by  a  council  of  superior  offi- 
cers, with  assistance  from  a  committee  of  persons,  called 
Agitators,  being  two  privates  chosen  from  each  company. 
These  bold  and  unscrupulous  men  determined  to  get  pos- 
session of  the  person  of  the  King,  and  to  withdraw  him 
from  the  power  of  the  Parliament. 

In  pursuance  of  this  resolution,  Joice,  originally  a  tailor, 
now  a  cornet,  and  a  furious  advocate  for  the  cause  of  the 
army,  on  the  4th  June,  1647,  appeared  suddenly  at  mid- 
night before  Holdenby  House.  The  troops  employed  by 
the  Commissioners  to  guard  the  King's  person,  being  in- 
fected, it  may  be  supposed,  with  the  general  feeling  of 
the  army,  offered  no  resistance.  Joice,  with  little  cere- 
mony, intruded  himself,  armed  with  his  pistols,  into  the 
King's  sleeping  apartment,  and  informed  his  Majesty  that 
he  must  please  to  attend  him.  "  Where  is  your  commis- 
sion ?"  said  the  unfortunate  King.  "  Yonder  it  is,"  an- 


158  DISPOSITION    OF    THE    DIFFERENT 

swered  the  rude  soldier,  pointing  to  his  troop  of  horse, 
which,  hy  the  early  dawning,  was  seen  drawn  up  in  the 
court-yard  of  the  palace. — "  It  is  written  in  legible  char- 
acters," replied  Charles ;  and  without  further  remon- 
strance, he  prepared  to  attend  the  escort. 

The  King  was  conducted  to  Newmarket,  and  from 
thence  to  the  palace  of  Hampton  Court ;  and  though  in 
the  hands  of  a  body  which  had  no  lawful  authority  or  re- 
sponsible character,  he  was  at  first  treated  with  more 
respect,  and  even  kindness,  that  he  had  experienced  either 
from  the  Scottish  army,  or  from  the  English  Commission- 
ers. The  officers  distrusted,  perhaps,  the  security  of  their 
own  power,  for  they  offered  a  pacification  on  easy  terms. 
They  asked  an  equal  national  representation,  freely  cho- 
sen ;  stipulated  that  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  should 
enjoy  the  command  of  the  militia  for  fourteen  years ;  and 
even  agreed  that  the  order  of  Bishops  should  be  re- 
established, but  without  any  temporal  power  or  coercive 
jurisdiction.  So  far  the  terms  were  more  moderate  than, 
from  such  men  and  in  such  a  moment,  the  King  could  have 
expected.  But  on  one  point  the  council  of  officers  were 
rigidly  determined  ;  they  insisted,  that  seven  of  the  ad- 
herents of  Charles,  chosen  from  those  who  had,  with 
wisdom  or  with  valour,  best  supported  the  sinking  cause 
of  royalty,  should  be  declared  incapable  of  pardon. 
Charles  was  equally  resolute  in  resisting  this  point ;  his 
conscience  had  suffered  too  deeply  upon  the  occasion  of 
Stafford's  execution,  to  which  he  had  yielded  in  the  be- 
ginning of  these  troubles,  to  permit  him  ever  to  be  tempted 
again  to  abandon  a  friend. 

In  the  meantime  the  Parliament  were  preparing  to  exert 
their  authority  in  opposing  and  checking  the  unconstitu- 
tional power  assumed  by  the  army ;  and  the  city  of  Lon- 
don, chiefly  composed  of  Presbyterians,  showed  a  general 
disposition  to  stand  by  the  Houses  of  Legislature.  But 
when  that  formidable  army  drew  near  to  London,  both 
Parliament  and  citizens  became  intimidated ;  and  the 
former  expelled  from  their  seats  the  leading  Presbyterian 
members,  and  suffered  the  Independents  to  dictate  to  the 


PARTIES    TOWARDS    THE    KING.  159 

dispirited  remainder  what  measures  they  judged  neces- 
sary. Prudence  would,  at  this  moment,  have  strongly 
recommended  to  Charles  an  agreement  with  the  army. 
But  the  Preshyterians  of  England  had  not  resigned  hopes  ; 
and  the  whole  kingdom  of  Scotland,  incensed  at  the  tri- 
umph of  the  Sectaries,  and  the  contumely  offered  to  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  which  had  been  stigma- 
tized, in  the  House  of  Commons,  as  an  Almanack  out  of 
date,  their  Commissioners  made,  in  private,  liberal  offers 
to  restore  the  King  by  force  of  arms.  In  listening  to 
these  proposals,  Charles  flattered  himself  that  he  should 
be  able  to  hold  the  balance  betwixt  the  Presbyterians  and 
Independents ;  but  he  mistook  the  spirit  of  the  latter 
party,  from  whom  this  private  negotiation  did  not  long 
remain  a  secret,  and  who  were  highly  incensed  by  the 
discovery. 

The  Presbyterians  had  undertaken  the  war  with  pro- 
fessions of  profound  respect  towards  the  King's  person 
and  dignity.  They  had  always  protested  that  they  made 
war  against  the  evil  counsellors  of  the  King,  but  not 
against  his  person  ;  and  their  ordinances,  while  they  were 
directed  against  the  Malignants,  as  they  termed  the  Roy- 
alists, ran  in  the  King's  own  name,  as  well  as  in  that  of 
the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  by  whose  sole  authority 
they  were  sent  forth.  The  Independents,  on  the  contrary, 
boldly  declared  themselves  at  war  with  the  Man  Charles, 
as  the  abuser  of  the  regal  power,  and  the  oppressor  of 
the  saints.  Cromwell  himself  avouched  such  doctrines  in 
open  Parliament.  He  said  it  was  childish  to  talk  of  there 
being  no  war  with  the  King's  person,  when  Charles  ap- 
peared in  armour,  and  at  the  head  of  his  troops  in  open 
battle  ;  and  that  he  himself  was  so  far  from  feeling  any 
scruple  on  the  subject,  that  he  would  fire  his  pistol  at  the 
King  as  readily  as  at  any  of  his  adherents,  should  he  meet 
him  in  the  fight. 

After  the  discovery  of  the  King's  treaty  with  the  Scot- 
tish Commissioners,  Cromwell,  admitting  Charles's  pow- 
ers of  understanding  and  reasoning,  denounced  him  as  a 
wan  i~f  the  deepest  dissimulation,  who  had  broken  faith, 


|()0  CHARLES'S  IMPRISONMI'.NT  IN 

by  professing  an  entire  reliance  on  the  wisdom  of  the  Par- 
liament, while,  by  a  separate  negotiation  with  the  Scottish 
Commissioners,  he  was  endeavouring  to  rekindle  the 
flames  of  civil  war  between  the  sister  kingdoms.  He  re- 
quired, and  by  the  now  irresistible  interest  of  the  Inde- 
pendents he  obtained,  declaration  from  the  House,  that 
the  Parliament  would  reef  ive  no  further  applications  from 
Charles,  and  make  no  addresses  to  him  in  future. 

The  unfortunate  King,  while  in  the  power  of  this  un- 
compromising faction,  by  whom  his  authority  seemed  to 
be  suspended,  if  not  abolished,  ought  to  have  been  aware, 
that  if  he  was  to  succeed  in  any  accommodation  with 
them  at  all,  it  could  only  be  by  accepting,  without  delay 
or  hesitation,  such  terms  as  they  were  disposed  to  allow 
him.  If  he  could  have  succeeded  in  gratifying  their  prin- 
cipal officers  by  promises  of  wealth,  rank,  and  distinction, 
which  were  liberally  tendered  to  them,  it  was  probable  that 
their  influence  might  have  induced  their  followers  to  ac- 
quiesce in  his  restoration,  especially  if  it  afforded  the 
means  of  disconcerting  the  plans  of  the  Presbyterians. 
But  Charles  ought,  at  the  same  time,  to  have  reflected, 
that  any  appearance  of  procrastination  on  his  part,  must 
give  rise  to  suspicions  of  his  sincerity ;  and  that  the  In- 
dependents, having  once  adopted  an  idea  that  he  was 
trifling  with,  or  deceiving  them,  had  none  of  that  sancti- 
monious respect  for  his  title,  or  person,  that  could  prevent 
his  experiencing  the  utmost  rigour. 

The  Independents  and  their  military  council,  according- 
ly, distrusting  the  sincerity  of  Charles,  and  feeling  every 
day  the  increase  of  their  power,  began  to  think  of  establish- 
ing it  on  an  entirely  different  basis  from  that  of  monarchy. 
They  withdrew  from  the  K  ing  the  solemn  marks  of  respect 
with  w.hich  he  had  been  hitherto  indulged,  treated  him 
with  neglect  and  incivility,  confined  his  person  more  close- 
ly, and  permitted  none  to  have  access  to  him,  but  such  as 
hud  their  confidence. 

Alarmed  at  these  ominous  severities,  Charles  now  re- 
solved to  escape  by  flight,  and  left  Hampton  Court  ac- 


CARISBROOK  CASTLE  161 

cordingly.  Unhappily,  either  misled  by  his  attendant  or 
by  his  own  indiscretion,  he  took  refuge  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  where  the  governor  of  Carisbrook  Castle  was  the 
friend  of  Cromwell,  and  a  fierce  Independent.  Here  the 
unfortunate  monarch  only  fell  into  a  captivity  more  solitary, 
more  severe,  and  more  comfortless,  than  any  which  he 
had  yet  experienced.  He  himself  pointed  out  to  Sir 
Philip  Warwick  an  old  greyheaded  domestic  who  brought 
in  wood  to  the  fire,  and  observed,  that  the  conversation 
of  that  menial  was  the  best  that  he  had  been  suffered  to 
enjoy  for  months.  There  is  even  reason  to  think  his  life 
was  aimed  at,  and  that  he  was  encouraged  to  make  an 
effort  to  escape  from  a  window  in  the  castle,  while  a  person 
was  placed  in  readiness  to  shoot  him  as  he  was  engaged 
in  the  attempt. 

The  council  of  war  renounced  all  further  communica- 
tion with  Charles ;  the  Parliament,  now  under  the  In- 
dependent influence,  sent  down  Commissioners  to  treat, 
but  with  preliminary  conditions  harder  than  any  yet  offered 
to  him.  Two  resources  remained  to  him — the  services 
of  the  disbanded  loyalists,  whom  its  faithful  adherents 
might  again  summon  to  arms — but  they  were  dispersed, 
disarmed,  and  heart-broken',  or  the  assistance  of  the 
Scots — but  they  were  distant  and  disunited.  Yet  Charles 
resolved  to  try  his  fortunes  on  this  perilous  cast,  rather 
than  treat  with  the  Parliament,  influenced  as  it  was  by  the 
army. 

The  presence  of  two  Scottish  Commissioners,  who  had 
accompanied  those  of  the  Parliament  to  Carisbrook,  ena- 
bled Charles  to  execute  a  secret  treaty  with  them,  by 
which  he  agreed  to  confirm  the  Solemn  League  and  Cov- 
enant, establish  Presbytery,  at  least  for  a  season,  and 
concur  in  the  extirpation  of  the  Sectaries."  These  articles, 
if  they  had  been  granted  while  Charles  was  at  Newcastle, 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  have  prevented  the  surren- 
der of  his  person  by  the  Scottish  army ;  but  it  was  the 
King's  unfortunate  lot,  on  this,  as  on  all  former  occasions 
to  delay  his  concessions  until  they  came  too  late. 
85)0 


i  62  CRUELTIES  OF  ARGYLE 

When  this  treaty  (which  was  called  the  Engagement 
oecause  the  Commissioners  engaged  to  restore  the  King 
by  force  of  arms)  was  presented  to  the  Scottish  Parlia- 
ment, it  was  approved  by  the  more  moderate  part  of  the 
Presbyterians,  who  were  led  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
together  with  his  brother  the  Earl  of  Lanark,  the  Lord 
Chancellor  Loudon,  and  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale  ;  this 
last  being  destined  to  make  a  remarkable  figure  in  the 
next  reign.  But  the  majority  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy, 
headed  by  the  more  zealous  among  their  hearers,  declared 
that  the  concessions  of  the  King  were  totally  insufficient 
to  engage  Scotland  in  a  new  war,  as  affording  no  adequate 
cause  for  a  quarrel  with  England.  This  party  was  headed 
by  the  Marquis  of  Argyle. 

I  may  here  mention  respecting  this  nobleman,  that  aftei 
Montrose's  army  was  disbanded,  he  had  taken  severe 
vengeance  on  the  MacDonalds,  and  other  clans  who  had 
assisted  in  the  desolation  of  Argyleshire.  Having  the  aid 
of  David  Lesley,  with  a  body  of  regular  troops,  he  re- 
duced successively  some  forts  into  which  Alaster  Mac- 
Donald  (Colkitto)  had  thrown  garrisons,  and  uniformly 
put  the  prisoners  to  the  sword.  The  MacDougals  were 
almost  exterminated  in  one  indiscriminate  slaughter,  and 
the  Lamonts  were  put  to  death  in  another  act  of  massacre. 
Sir  James  Turner,  an  officer  who  served  under  Lesley, 
kys  the  blame  of  these  inhumanities  on  a  hard-hearted 
clergyman  called  Neaves.  David  Lesley  was  disgusted 
at  it,  and  when,  after  some  such  sanguinary  execution,  he 
saw  his  chaplain  with  his  shoes  stained  with  blood,  he 
asked  him  reproachfully,  "  Have  you  enough  of  it  now, 
Master  John  ?" 

These  atrocities,  by  whomsoever  committed,  must  have 
been  perpetrated  in  revenge  of  the  sufferings  of  Argyle 
and  his  clan  ;  and  to  these  must  be  added  the  death  of 
old  Colkitto,  who,  taken  in  one  of  these  Highlard  forts, 
was  tried  by  a  jury  convened  by  authority  of  George 
Campbell,  the  Sheriff*  Substitute  of  Argyle,  from  whose 
sentence  we  are  told  very  few  escaped,  and  was  executed 
of  course. 


THE  ENGAGERS  DEFEATED.  163 

All  these  grounds  of  offence  having  been  given  to  the 
Royalists,  in  a  corner  of  the  country  where  revenge  was 
considered  as  a  duty  and  a  virtue,  it  is  not  extraordinary 
that  Argyle  should  have  objected  most  earnestly  to  the 
Engagement,  which  was  an  enterprise  in  which  the  King's 
interest  was  to  be  defended,  with  more  slender  precautions 
against  the  Malignants,  than  seemed  consistent  with  the 
safety  of  those  who  had  been  most  violent  against  them. 
Many  of  the  best  officers  of  the  late  army  declined  to 
serve  with  the  new  levies,  until  the  Church  should  approve 
the  cause  of  quarrel.  The  Parliament,  however,  moved 
by  compassion  for  their  native  monarch,  and  willing  to 
obliterate  the  disgrace  which  attached  to  the  surrender  of 
the  King  at  Newcastle,  appointed  an  army  to  be  levied. 
The  kingdom  was  thus  thrown  into  the  utmost  confusion 
between  the  various  factions  of  the  Engagers  and  their 
opponents.  The  civil  magistrates,  obeying  the  commands 
of  the  Parliament,  ordered  the  subjects  to  assume  arms 
under  pain  of  temporal  punishment ;  while  the  clergy, 
from  the  pulpit,  denounced  the  vengeance  of  Heaven 
against  those  who  obeyed  the  summons. 

The  Engagers  prevailed  so  far  as  to  raise  a  tumultuary 
and  ill-disciplined  army  of  about  fifteen  thousand  men, 
which  was  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  This 
ill-fated  nobleman  deserved  the  praise  of  being  a  moderate 
man  during  all  the  previous  struggles ;  and,  though  loving 
his  King,  had  always  endeavoured  to  reconcile  his  admin- 
istration with  the  rights,  and  even  the  prejudices,  of  his 
countrymen.  But  he  had  little  decision  of  character,  and 
less  military  skill.  While  the  Scots  were  preparing  their 
succours  slowly,  and  with  hesitation,  the  English  cavaliers, 
impatient  at  the  danger  and  captivity  of  the  King,  took 
arms.  But  their  insurrections  were  so  511  connected  with 
each  other,  that  they  were  crushed  successively,  save  in 
two  cases,  where  the  insurgents  made  themselves  masters 
of  Colchester  and  Pembroke,  in  which  towns  they  were 
instantly  besieged. 

Hamilton  ought  to  have  advanced  with  all  speed  to  raise 
the  siege  of  these  places;  but  instead  of  this,  he  loitered 


164  THE  KING'S  DEATH  RESOLVED  ON. 

a\v;iy  more  than  forty  days  in  Lancashire,  until  Cromwell 
came  upon  him  near  Warrington,  where  Iiead  and  heart 
seemed  alike  to  have  failed  him.  Without  even  an  attempt 
at  resistance,  he  abandoned  his  enterprise,  and  made  a 
disorderly  retreat,  leaving  his  artillery  and  baggage.  Bail- 
lie,  with  the  infantry,  being  deserted  by  his  General,  sur- 
rendered to  the  enemy  at  Uttoxeter ;  and  Hamilton  him- 
self, with  the  cavalry,  took  the  same  deplorable  course. 
None  escaped  save  a  resolute  body  of  men  under  the  Earl 
of  Calender,  who  broke  through  the  enemy,  and  forced 
their  way  back  to  their  own  country. 

The  news  of  this  disaster  flew  to  Scotland.  The  re- 
fractory clergy  took  the  merit  of  having  prophesied  the 
downfall  of  the  Engagers,  and  stirred  up  the  more  zealous 
Presbyterians  to  take  possession  of  the  government. 
Argyle  drew  to  arms  in  the  Highlands,  whilst  the  western 
peasantry  assembling,  and  headed  by  their  divines,  repair- 
ed to  Edinburgh.  This  insurrection  was  called  the  Whig- 
amores'  Raid,  from  the  word,  whig,  whig,  that  is,  get  on, 
get  on,  which  is  used  by  the  western  peasants  in  driving 
their  horses, — a  name  destined  to  become  the  distinction 
of  a  powerful  party  in  British  history. 

The  Earl  of  Lanark  was  at  the  head  of  some  troops  on 
the  side  of  the  Engagement,  but,  afraid  of  provoking  the 
English,  in  whose  hands  his  brother  Hamilton  was  a  pris- 
oner, he  made  no  material  opposition.  Argyle  became 
once  more  at  the  head  of  the  government.  It  was  owing 
to  this  revolution  that  Cromwell  advanced  to  the  Borders, 
and,  instead  of  finding  any  enemies  to  fight  with,  was  re- 
ceived by  the  victorious  Whigamores  as  a  friend  and 
brother.  Their  horror  at  an  army  of  Sectaries  had  been 
entirely  overpowered  by  their  far  more  violent  repugnance 
to  unite  with  Cavaliers  and  Malignants.  Cromwell,  on  that 
occasion,  held  much  intimate  correspondence  with  Argyle ; 
which  made  it  generally  believed  that  the  Marquis  acqui- 
esced in  the  violent  measures  which  were  to  be  adopted 
by  the  successful  General  against  the  captive  King,  whose 
fate  was  now  decided  upon. 


THE  HIGH  COURT  OF  JUSTICE.  106 

During  these  military  transactions,  Charles  had  been 
engaged  in  a  new  treaty  with  the  Parliament,  which  was 
conducted  at  Newport.  It  was  set  on  foot  in  consequence 
of  Cromwell's  ahsence  with  his  army,  which  restored  the 
Parliament  to  some  freedom  of  debate,  and  the  Presby- 
terian members  to  a  portion  of  their  influence.  If  any 
thing  could  have  saved  that  unfortunate  Prince,  it  might 
have  been  by  accomplishing  an  agreement  with  the  House 
of  Commons,  while  Hamilton's  army  was  yet  entire,  and 
before  the  insurrections  of  the  Royalists  had  been  entirely 
suppressed.  But  he  delayed  closing  the  treaty  until  the 
army  returned,  flushed  with  victory  over  the  English  Cav- 
aliers and  Scottish  Engagers,  and  denouncing  vengeance 
on  the  head  of  the  King,  whom  they  accused  of  being  '.he 
sole  author  of  the  civil  war,  and  liable  to  punishment  as 
such.  This  became  the  language  of  the  whole  party. 
The  pulpits  rung  with  the  exhortations  of  the  military 
preachers,  demanding  that  the  King  should  be  given  over, 
as  a  public  enemy,  to  a  public  trial. 

It  was  in  vain  that  Charles  had  at  length,  with  lingering 
reluctance,  yielded  every  request  which  the  Parliament 
could  demand  of  him.  It  was  equally  in  vain  that  the 
Parliament  had  publicly  declared  that  the  concessions 
made  by  the  King  were  sufficient  to  form  the  basis  of  a 
satisfactory  peace.  The  army,  stirred  up  by  their  ambi- 
tious officers  and  fanatic  preachers,  were  resolved  that 
Charles  should  be  put  to  an  open  and  ignominious  death  ; 
and  a  sufficient  force  of  soldiery  was  stationed  in  and 
around  London  to  make  resistance  impossible,  either  on 
the  part  of  the  Presbyterians  or  the  Royalists. 

In  order  to  secure  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, Co  nel  Pride,  a  man  who  had  been  a  brewer,  drew 
up  his  regiment  at  the  doors  of  the  House  of  Parliament, 
and  in  the  streets  adjacent,  and  secured  the  persons  of 
upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  members,  who,  being 
supposed  favourable  to  reconciliation  with  the  King,  were 
arrested  and  thrown  into  prison.  This  act  of  violence 
was  called  Pride's  Purge.  At  the  same  time,  the  House 
«f  Lords  was  shut  up.  The  remainder  of  the  House  o( 


IC6  CHARACTER  OF  THE 

Commons,  who  alone  were  permitted  to  sit  and  vote,  wtre 
all  of  the  Independent  party,  and  ready  to  do  whatever 
should  be  required  by  the  soldiers.  This  remnant  of  a 
Parliament,  under  the  influence  of  the  swords  of  their  own 
soldiers,  proceeded  to  nominate  what  was  called  a  High 
Court  of  Justice  for  the  trial  of  King  Charles,  charged 
with  treason,  as  they  termed  it,  against  the  people  of  Eng- 
land. The  Court  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  per- 
sons, chosen  from  the  army,  the  Parliament,  and  from  such 
of  .the  citizens  of  London  as  were  affected  to  the  proposed 
change  of  government.  Many  of  the  judges  so  nominated 
refused,  notwithstanding,  to  act  upon  such  a  commission. 
Meantime,  the  great  body  of  the  English  people  beheld 
these  strange  preparations  with  grief  and  terror.  The 
Scots,  broken  by  the  defeat  of  Hamilton  and  the  success 
of  the  Whigamores'  Raid,  had  no  means  of  giving  as- 
sistance. . 

Those  who  drove  this  procedure  forward  were  of  dif- 
ferent classes,  urged  by  different  motives. 

The  higher  officers  of  the  army,  Cromwell,  Ireton,  and 
others,  seeing  they  could  not  rise  by  means  of  a  treat) 
with  Charles,  had  resolved  to  dethrone  and  put  him  to 
death,  in  order  to  establish  a  military  government  in  their 
own  persons.  These  men  had  a  distinct  aim,  and  they 
in  some  degree  attained  it.  There  were  others  among 
the  Independent  party,  who  thought  they  had  offended  the 
King  so  far  beyond  forgiveness,  that  his  deposition  and 
death  were  necessary  for  their  own  safety.  But  there 
were  also  among  the  Independent  members  of  Parliament 
men  of  a  nobler  character.  There  were  statesmen  who 
had  bewildered  themselves  with  meditating  upon  theoret- 
ical schemes,  till  they  had  fancied  the  possibility  of  erecting 
a  system  of  republican  government  on  the  foundation  of 
the  ancient  monarchy  of  England.  Such  men,  imposed 
on  by  a  splendid  dream  of  unattainable  freedom,  imagined 
that  the  violence  put  upon  the  Parliament  by  the  soldiery, 
.nnd  the  death  of  the  King,  when  it  should  take  place, 
were  but  necessary  steps  to  the  establishment  of  this  vis- 
ionary fabric,  like  the  pulling  down  of  an  old  edifice  to 


ENGLISH    REVOLUTIONISTS.  167 

make  room  for  a  new  building.  After  this  fanciful  class 
of  politicians,  came  enthusiasts  of  another  and  coarser 
description,  influenced  by  the  wild  harangues  of  their 
crack-brained  preachers,  who  saw  in  Charles  not  only  the 
head  of  the  enemies  with  whom  they  had  been  contending 
for  four  years  with  various  fortune,  but  also  a  wicked  King 
of  Amalekites,  delivered  up  to  them  to  be  hewn  in  pieces 
in  the  name  of  Heaven.  Such  were  the  various  motives 
which  urged  the  actors  in  this  extraordinary  scene. 

The  pretext  by  which  they  coloured  these  proceedings 
was,  that  the  King  had  levied  war  against  his  people,  to 
extend  over  them  an  unlawful  authority.  If  this  had 
been  true  in  point  of  fact,  it  was  no  ground  of  charge  in 
point  of  law ;  for  the  constitution  of  England  declares 
I  hat  the  King  can  do  no  wrong,  that  is,  cannot  be  made 
responsible  for  any  wrong  which  he  does.  The  vengeance 
of  the  laws,  when  such  wrong  is  committed,  is  most  justly 
directed  against  those  wicked  ministers  by  whom  the  Cul- 
pable measure  is  contrived,  and  the  agents  by  whom  it  is 
executed.  The  constitution  of  England  wisely  rests  on 
the  principle,  that  if  the  counsellors  and  instruments  of  a 
prince's  pleasure  are  kept  under  wholesome  terror  of  the 
laws,  there  is  no  risk  of  the  monarch,  in  his  own  unas- 
sisted person,  transgressing  the  limits  of  his  authority. 

But  in  fact  the  King  had  not  taken  arms  against  the 
Parliament  to  gain  any  new  and  extraordinary  extent  of 
power.  It  is  no  doubt  true,  that  the  Parliament,  when 
summoned  together,  had  many  just  grievances  to  corn- 
plain  of;  but  these  were  not,  in  general,  innovations  of 
Charles,  but  such  exertions  of  power  as  had  been  cus- 
tomary in  the  four  last  reigns,  when  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land had  been  freed  from  the  restraint  of  the  Barons, 
without  being  sufficiently  subjected  to  the  control  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  representing  the  people  at  large. 
They  vere,  however,  very  bad  precedents;  and,  since 
the  King  had  shown  a  desire  to  follow  them,  the  Parlia- 
ment were  most  justly  called  upon  to  resist  the  repetition 
i>f  old  encroachments  upon  their  liberty.  But  before  tho 
war  broke  out,  the  King  had  relinquished  in  favour  of  the 


168  TRIAL    OF    CHARLES    1. 

Commons  all  they  had  demanded.  The  ultimate  cause 
of  quarrel  was,  which  party  should  have  die  command  of 
the  militia  or  puhlic  force  of  the  kingdom.  This  was  a 
constitutional  part  of  the  King's  prerogative  ;  for  the  ex- 
ecutive power  cannot  be  said  to  exist  unless  united  with 
the  power  of  the  sword.  Violence  on  each  side  height- 
ened the  general  want  of  confidence.  The  Parliament, 
as  has  been  before  stated,  garrisoned,  and  held  out  the 
town  of  Hull  against  Charles ;  and  the  King  infringed  the 
privileges  of  the  Commons,  by  coming  with  an  armed 
train  to  arrest  five  of  their  members  during  the  sitting  of 
Parliament.  So  that  the  war  must  be  justly  imputed  to 
a  train  of  long-protracted  quarrels,  in  which  neither  party 
could  be  termed  wholly  right,  and  still  less  entirely  wrong, 
but  which  created  so  much  jealousy  on  both  sides  as  could 
scarcely  terminate  otherwise  than  in  civil  war. 

The  High  Court  of  Justice,  nevertheless,  was  opened, 
and  the  King  was  brought  to  the  bar  on  19th  January 
1649.  The  soldiers,  who  crowded  the  avenues,  weie 
taught  to  cry  out  for  justice  upon  the  royal  prisoner. 
When  a  bystander,  affected  by  the  contrast  betwixt  the 
King's  present  and  former  condition,  could  not  refrain 
from  saying  aloud,  "  God  save  your  Majesty,"  he  was 
struck  and  beaten  by  the  guards  around  him — "  A  rude 
chastisement,"  said  the  King,  "  for  so  slight  an  offence." 
Charles  behaved  throughout  the  whole  of  the  trying  scene 
with  the  utmost  dignity.  He  bore,  without  complaining, 
the  reproaches  of  murderer  and  tyrant,  which  were  show- 
ered on  him  by  the  riotous  soldiery  ;  and  when  a  ruffian 
spit  in  his  face,  the  captive  monarch  wiped  it  off  with  his 
handkerchief,  and  only  said,  "  Poor  creatures !  for  half 
a  crown  they  would  do  the  same  to  their  father." 

When  the  deed  of  accusation,  stated  to  be  in  the  name 
of  the  people  of  England,  was  read,  a  voice  from  one  of 
the  galleries  exclaimed,  "  Not  the  tenth  part  of  them  !" 
Again,  as  the  names  of  the  judges  were  called  over,  when 
that  of  General  Fairfax  occurred,  the  same  voice  replied, 
"  He  has  more  sense  than  to  be  here."  Upon  the  officer 
who  commanded  the  guard  ordering  the  musketeers  to 


EXECUTION    OF    CHARLES    1.  169 

fire  into  the  gallery  from  which  the  interruption  came,  the 
speaker  was  discovered  to  be  Lady  Fairfax,  wife  of  Sii 
Thomas,  the  General  of  the  forces,  and  a  daughter  of  the 
noble  house  Vere,  who  in  this  manner  declared  her  re- 
sentment at  the  extraordinary  scene. 

The  King,  when  placed  at  the  bar,  looked  around  on 
the  awful  preparations  for  trial,  on  the  bench,  crowded 
with  avowed  enemies,  and  displaying  what  was  still  more 
painful,  the  faces  of  one  or  two  ungrateful  friends,  without 
losing  his  steady  composure.  When  the  public  accuser 
began  to  speak,  he  touched  him  with  his  staff,  and  sternly 
admonished  him  to  forbear.  He  afterwards  displayed 
both  talent  and  boldness  in  his  own  defence.  He  disown- 
ed the  authority  of  the  novel  and  incompetent  court  be- 
fore which  he  was  placed  ;  reminded  those  who  sat  as 
his  judges,  that  he  was  their  lawful  King,  answerable  in- 
deed to  God  for  the  use  of  his  power,  but  declared  by 
the  constitution  incapable  of  doing  wrong.  Even  if  the 
authority  of  the  people  were  sufficient  to  place  him  before 
the  bar,  he  denied  that  it  had  been  obtained.  The  act  of 
violence,  he  justly  stated,  was  the  deed  of  a  few  daring 
men,  who  had 'violated,  by  military  force,  the  freedom  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  altogether  destroyed  the 
House  of  Peers.  He  declared  that  he  spoke  not  for 
himself,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  laws  and  liberties  of  En- 
gland. 

Though  repeatedly  interrupted  by  Bradshaw,  a  lawyer, 
president  of  the  pretended  High  Court  of  Justice,  Charles 
pronounced  his  defence  in  a  manly,  yet  temperate  manner. 
Being  then  three  times  called  on  to  answer  to  the  charge, 
he  as  often  declined  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court.  Sen- 
tonce  of  death  was  then  pronounced,  to  be  executed  in 
front  of  the  royal  palace  lately  his  own. 

On  the  30th  January  1649,  Charles  I.  was  brought 
forth  through  one  of  the  windows  in  front  of  the  Banquet- 
ing House  at  Whitehall,  upon  a  large  scaffold  hung  with 
black,  and  closely  surrounded  with  guards.  Two  execu- 
tioners in  masks  attended,  (one  wearing  a  long  grey  beard, 
8  VOL.  I  2d  SER. 


(70  EXECUTION    OV    t  HARLES      . 

beside  a  block  and  cushion.  Juxon,  a  bishop  of  the 
Church  of  England,  assisted  the  King's  devotions.  As 
Charles  laid  his  head  on  the  block,  he  addressed  to  the 
bishop,  emphatically,  the  word  remember,  and  then  gave 
the  signal  for  the  fatal  stroke.  The  one  executioner  struck 
the  head  from  the  shoulders  at  a  single  blow  ;  the  other 
held  it  up,  and  proclaimed  it  the  head  of  a  traitor.  The 
soldiers  shouted  in  triumph,  but  the  multitude  generally 
burst  out  into  tears  and  lamentations. 

This  tragic  spectacle  was  far  from  accomplishing  the 
purpose  intended  by  those  who  had  designed  it.  On  the 
contrary,  the  King's  serene  and  religious  behaviour  at  his 
trial  and  execution  excited  the  sympathy  and  sorrow  oi' 
many  who  had  been  his  enemies  when  in  power ;  the  in- 
justice and  brutality  which  he  bore  with  so  much  dignity, 
overpowered  the  remembrance  of  the  errors  of  which  he 
had  been  guilty ;  and  the  almost  universal  sense  of  the 
iniquity  of  his  sentence,  was  a  principal  cause  of  the  sub- 
sequent restoration  of  his  family  to  the  throne. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Montrose  makes  a  Descent  upon  the  Highlands,  is  taken 
Prisoner,  and  Executed — Charles  IL  being  declared 
King,  arrives  in  Scotland — CromwelPs  Invasion  of 
Scotland — Battle  of  Dunbar — Coronation  of  Charles 
II. — He  takes  the  Command  of  the  Army,  marches 
into  England,  is  Defeated  at  Worcester,  and  Escapes 
abroad — War  in  Scotland  under  General  Monk — 
Cromwell  makes  himself  Lord  Protector  of  the  Re- 
publics of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland — Glencairn'i 
rising^ — Exploits  of  Evan  Dh'J,,  of  Lochiel,  Chief  oj 
the  Camerons. 

THE  death  of  Charles  I.  was  nowhere  more  deeply 
resented  than  in  his  native  country  of  Scotland  ;  and  their 
national  pride  was  the  more  hurt,  that  they  could  not  but 


MEETING  OF  THE   SCOTTISH  PARLIAMENT.  171 

be  conscious  that  the  surrender  of  his  person  by  the  Scot- 
tish army  at  Newcastle,  was  the  event  which  contribut- 
ed immediately  to  place  him  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 

The  government,  since  the  Whigamores'  Raid,  had 
continued  in  the  hands  of  Argyle  and  the  more  rigid  Pres- 
byterians ;  but  even  they,  no  friends  to  the  House  of 
Stewart,  were  bound  by  the  Covenant,  which  was  their 
rule  in  all  things,  to  acknowledge  the  hereditary  descer*. 
of  their  ancient  Kings,  and  call  to  the  throne  Charles,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  deceased  monarch,  providing  he  would 
consent  to  unite  with  his  subjects  in  taking  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  for  the  support  of  Presbytery,  and 
the  putting  down  of  all  other  forms  of  religion.  The 
Scottish  Parliament  met,  and  resolved  accordingly  to  pro- 
claim Charles  II.  their  lawful  sovereign;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  not  to  admit  him  to  the  actual  power  as  such,  until 
he  should  give  security  for  the  religion,  unity  and  peace 
of  the  kingdoms.  Commissioners  were  sent  to  wait  upon 
Charles,  who  had  retreated  to  the  continent,  in  order  to 
offer  him  the  throne  of  Scotland  on  these  terms. 

The  young  Prince  had  already  around  him  counsellors 
of  a  different  character.  The  celebrated  Marquis  of 
Montrose,  and  other  Scottish  nobles,  few  in  number,  but 
animated  by  their  leader's  courage  and  zeal,  advised  him 
to  reject  the  proposal  of  the  Presbyterians  to  recall  him 
to  the  royal  dignity  on  such  conditions,  and  offered  their 
swords  and  lives  to  place  him  on  the  throne  by  force  of 
arms. 

It  appears  that  Charles  II.  who  never  had  any  deep 
sense  of  integrity,  was  willing  to  treat  with  each  of  these 
parties  at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  that  he  granted  a 
commission  to  the  Marquis  to  attempt  a  descent  on  Scot- 
land, taking  the  chance  of  what  might  be  accomplished  by 
his  far  famed  fortune  and  dauntless  enterprise,  while  he 
kept  a  negotiation  afloat  with  the  Presbyterian  commis- 
sioners, in  case  of  Montrose's  failure. 

That  intrepid  but  rash  enthusiast  embarked  at  Hani 
burgh,  with  some  arms  and  treasure,  supplied  by  the  north- 
ern courts  of  Europe.     His  fame  drew  around  him  a  few 


112  MONTROSE'S  DESCENT,  AND  DEFEAT. 

of  the  emigrant  Royalists,  chiefly  Scottish,  and  he  re- 
cruitec.  about  six  hundred  German  mercenaries.  His  firsi 
descent  was  on  the  Orkney  islands,  where  he  forced  to 
arms  a  few  hundreds  of  unwarlike  fishermen.  He  next 
disembarked  on  the  mainland  ;  but  the  natives  fled  from 
him,  remembering  the  former  excesses  of  his  army. 
Strachan,  an  officer  under  Lesley,  came  upon  the  Mar- 
quis by  surprise,  near  a  pass  called  Invercharron,  on  the 
confines  of  Ross-shire.  The  Orkney  men  made  but  little 
resistance ;  the  Germans  retired  to  a  wood,  and  there 
surrendered  ;  the  few  Scottish  companions  of  Montrose 
fought  bravely,  but  in  vain.  Many  gallant  cavaliers  were 
made  prisoners.  Montrose,  when  the  day  was  irretrieva- 
bly lost,  threw  off  his  cloak  bearing  the  star,  and  after- 
wards changed  clothes  with  an  ordinary  Highland  kern, 
that  he  might  endeavour  to  effect  his  escape.  Exhausted 
with  fatigue  and  hunger,  he  was  at  length  taken  by  a  Ross- 
shire  chief,  MacLeod  of  Assint,  who  happened  to  be  out 
with  a  party  of  his  men  in  arms.  The  Marquis  discov- 
ered himself  to  this  man,  thinking  himself  secure  of  favour, 
since  Assint  had  been  once  his  own  follower.  But  tempt- 
ed by  a  reward  of  four  hundred  bolls  of  meal,  this  wretch- 
ed laird  delivered  his  old  commander  to  the  unfriendly 
hands  of  David  Lesley. 

The  Covenanters,  when  he  who  had  so  often  made  them 
tremble,  was  at  length  delivered  into  their  hands,  celebrat- 
ed their  victory  with  all  the  exultation  of  mean,  timid,  and 
sullen  spirits,  suddenly  released  from  apprehension  of 
imminent  danger.  Montrose  was  dragged  in  a  sort  of 
triumph  from  town  to  town,  in  the  mean  garb  in  which  he 
had  disguised  himself  for  flight.  To  the  honour  of  the 
town  of  Dundee,  which,  you  will  recollect,  had  been 
partly  plundered,  and  partly  burnt  by  his  forces,  during 
his  eventful  progress  in  1645,  the  citizens  of  that  town 
were  the  first  who  supplied  their  fallen  foe  with  clothes 
befitting  his  rank,  with  money,  and  with  necessaries.  The 
Marquis  himself  must  have  felt  this  as  a  severe  rebuke  for 
the  wasteful  mode  in  which  he  had  carried  on  his  warfarp ; 
and  it  was  a  still  more  piercing  reproach  to  the  unworthy 


MONTROSE  PLACED  IN  CONFINEMENT.  173 

victors,  who  now  triumphed  over  an  heroic  enemy  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  would  have  done  over  a  detected 
felon. 

While  Montrose  was  confined  in  the  house  of  the  Laird 
of  Grange,  he  had  almost  made  his  escape  through  the 
bold  stratagem  of  the  Laird's  wife,  a  descendant  of  the 
house  of  Somerville.  This  lady's  address  had  drencheH 
the  guards  with  liquor ;  and  the  Marquis,  disguiseu  m  a 
female  dress,  with  which  she  had  furnished  him,  had  al- 
ready passed  the  sleeping  sentinels,  when  he  was  chal- 
lenged and  stopped  by  a  half  drunken  soldier,  who  had 
been  rambling  about  without  any  duty  or  purpose.  The 
alarm  being  given,  he  was  again  secured,  and  the  lady's 
plot  was  of  no  avail.  She  escaped  punishment  only  by 
her  husband's  connexion  with  the  ruling  party. 

Before  Montrose  reached  Edinburgh,  h<3  had  been  con- 
demned by  the  Parliament  to  the  death  of  a  traitor.  The 
sentence  was  pronounced,  without  further  trial,  upon  an 
act  of  attainder  passed  whilst  he  was  plundering  Argyle 
in  the  winter  of  1644;  and  it  was  studiously  aggravated 
by  every  species  of  infamy. 

The  Marquis  was,  according  to  the  special  order  of 
Parliament,  met  at  the  gates  by  the  magistrates,  attended 
by  the  common  hangman,  who  was  clad  for  the  time  in 
his  own  livery.  He  was  appointed,  as  the  most  infamous 
mode  of  execution,  to  be  hanged  on  a  gibbet  thirty  feet 
high,  his  head  to  be  planted  on  the  tolbooth,  or  prison  of 
Edinburgh,  his  body  to  be  quartered,  and  his  limbs  to  be 
placed  over  the  gates  of  the  principal  towns  of  Scotland. 
According  to  the  sentence,  he  was  conducted  to  jail  on 
a  cart,  bound  and  bareheaded,  the  horse  led  by  the  exe- 
cutioner, wearing  his  bonnet,  and  the  noble  prisoner  ex- 
posed to  the  scorn  of  the  people,  who  were  expected  to 
hoot  at  him  and  revile  him.  But  the  rabble,  who  came 
out  with  the  rudest  purposes,  relented  when  they  saw  the 
dignity  of  his  bearing;  and  silence,  accompanied  by  the 
siglis  and  tears  of  the  crowd,  attended  the  progress,  which 
his  enemies  had  designed  should  excite  other  emotions. 


1 74  MONTROSE'S  SENTENCE. 

The  only  observation  he  made  was,  that  "the  ceremonial 
of  1  is  entrancg  had  been  somewhat  fatiguing  and  tedi- 
ous." 

He  appeared  before  the  Parliament,  to  hear  the  terms 
of  his  sentence,  with  the  same  manly  indifference.  He 
gazed  around  on  his  assembled  enemies  with  as  mi  ch 
composure  as  the  most  unconcerned  spectator ;  heunl 
Loudoun,  the  Chancellor,  upbraid  him,  in  a  long  and  vio- 
lent declamation,  with  the  breach  of  both  the  first  and 
second  Covenant ;  with  his  cruel  wars  at  the  head  of  the 
savage  Irish  and  Highlandmen ;  and  with  the  murders, 
treasons,  and  conflagrations,  which  they  had  occasioned. 
When  the  Chancellor  had  finished  Montrose  with  diffi- 
culty got  permission  to  reply.  He  told  the  Parliament, 
with  his  usual  boldness,  that  if  he  appeared  before  them 
uncovered,  and  addressed  them  with  respect,  it  was  only 
because  the  King  had  acknowledged  their  assembly,  by 
entering  into  a  treaty  with  them.  He  admitted  he  had 
taken  the  first,  or  National  Covenant,  and  had  acted  upon 
it  so  long  as  it  was  confined  to  its  proper  purposes,  but  had 
dissented  from  and  opposed  those  who  had  used  it  as  a 
covert  for  assailing  the  royal  authority.  "The  second; 
or  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  he  said,  "  he  had 
never  taken,  and  was  in  no  respect  bound  by  it.  He  had 
made  war  by  the  King's  express  commission  ;  and  although 
it  was  impossible,  in  the  course  of  hostilities,  absolutely 
to  prevent  acts  of  military  violence,  he  had  always  dis- 
owned and  punished  such  irregularities.  He  had  never," 
he  said,  "spilt  the  blood  of  a  prisoner,  even  in  retaliation 
of  the  cold-blooded  murder  of  his  officers  and  friends — 
nay,  he  had  spared  the  lives  of  thousands  in  the  very  shock 
of  battle.  His  last  undertaking,"  he  continued,  "  was 
carried  on  at  the  express  command  of  Charles  II.,  whom 
they  had  proclaimed  their  sovereign,  and  with  whom  they 
were  treating  as  such.  Therefore,  he  desired  to  be  used 
by  them  as  a  man  and  a  Christian,  to  whom  many  of  them 
had  been  indebted  for  life  and  property,  when  the  fate  of 
war  had  placed  both  in  his  power.  He  required  them, 
in  conclusion,  to  proceed  with  him  according  to  the  laws 


EXECUTION  OF  MONTROSE.  175 

of  nature  and  nations,  but  especially  according  to  those  of 
Scotland,  as  they  themselves  would  expect  to  be  judged 
when  they  stood  at  the  bar  of  Almighty  God." 

The  sentence  already  mentioned  was  then  read  to  the 
undaunted  prisoner,  on  which  he  observed,  he  was  more 
honoured  in  having  his  head  set  on  the  prison,  for  the  cause 
in  which  he  died,  than  he  would  have  been  in  having  his 
picture  in  the  King's  bed-chamber.  As  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  his  limbs,  he  said  he  wished  he  had  flesh  enough 
to  send  some  to  each  city  of  Europe,  in  memory  of  the 
cause  in  which  he  died.  He  spent  the  night  in  reducing 
these  ideas  into  poetry. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  next  day  he  was  awakened 
by  the  drums  and  trumpets  calling  out  the  guards,  by  or- 
ders of  Parliament,  to  attend  on  his  execution.  "  Alas ' 
he  said,  "  I  have  given  these  good  folks  much  trouble 
while  alive,  and  do  I  continue  to  be  a  terror  to  them  on 
the  day  I  am  to  die  ?" 

The  clergy  importuned  him,  urging  repentance  of  his 
sins,  and  offering,  on  his  expressing  such  compunction,  to 
relieve  him  from  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  under 
which  he  laboured.  He  calmly  replied,  that  though  the 
excommunication  had  been  rashly  pronounced,  yet  it  gave 
him  pain,  and  he  desired  to  be  freed  from  it,  if  a  relaxa- 
tion could  be  obtained,  by  expressing  penitence  for  his 
offences  as  a  man ;  but  that  he  had  committed  none  in  his 
duty  to  his  prince  and  country,  and  had  none  to  acknowl- 
edge or  repent  of. 

Johnstone  of  Wariston,  an  eminent  Covenanter,  intrud- 
ed himself  on  the  noble  prisoner,  while  he  was  combing 
the  long  curled  hair,  which  he  wore  as  a  cavalier.  War- 
iston, a  gloomy  fanatic,  hinted  as  if  it  were  but  an  idle 
employment  at  so  solemn  a  time.  "  I  will  arrange  my 
head  as  I  please  to-day,  while  it  is  still  my  own,"  answer- 
ed Montrose  ;  "  to-morrow  it  will  be  yours,  and  you  may 
deal  with  it  as  you  list." 

The  Marquis  walked  on  foot  from  the  prison  to  the 
Grassmarket,  the  common  place  of  execution  for  the 


1 70  EXECUTION    OF    OTHER    ROYALISTS. 

basest  felons,  where  a  gibbet  of  extraordinary  height,  with 
a  scaffold  covered  with  black  cloth,  were  erected.  Here 
he  was  again  pressed  by  the  Presbyterian  clergy  to  own 
his  guilt.  Their  cruel  and  illiberal  offioiousness  could  not 
disturb  the  serenity  of  his  temper.  To  exaggerate  the 
infamy  of  his  punishment,  or  rather  to  show  the  mean  spite 
of  his  enemies,  a  book,  containing  the  printed  history  of 
his  exploits,  was  hung  around  his  neck  by  the  hangman. 
This  insult,  likewise,  he  treated  with  contempt,  saying,  he 
accounted  such  a  record  of  his  services  to  his  prince  as 
a  symbol  equally  honourable  with  the  badge  of  the  Garter, 
which  the  King  had  bestowed  on  him.  In  all  other  par- 
ticulars, Montrose  bore  himself  with  the  same  calm  dignity, 
and  finally  submitted  to  execution  with  such  resolved 
courage,  that  many,  even  of  his  bitterest  enemies,  wept 
on  the  occasion.  He  suffered  on  the  21st  May  1C  50 

Argyle,  the  mortal  foe  of  Montrose,  exulted  in  private 
over  the  death  of  his  enemy,  but  abstained  from  appear- 
ing in  Parliament  when  he  was  condemned,  and  from 
witnessing  his  execution.  He  is  even  said  to  have  shed 
tears  when  he  heard  the  scene  rehearsed.  His  son,  Lord 
Lorn,  was  less  scrupulous;  he  looked  on  his  feudal  ene- 
my's last  moments,  and  even  watched  the  blows  of  the 
executioner's  axe,  while  he  dissevered  the  head  from  the 
body.  His  cruelty  was  requited  in  the  subsequent  reign  ; 
and  indeed  Heaven  soon  after  made  manifest  the  folly,  as 
well  as  guilt,  which  destroyed  this  celebrated  commander, 
at  a  time  when  approaching  war  might  have  rendered  his 
talents  invaluable  to  his  country. 

Other  noble  Scottish  blood  was  spilt  at  the  same  time, 
both  at  home  and  in  England.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly, 
who  had  always  acted  for  the  King,  though  he  had  injured 
his  affairs  by  his  hesitation  to  co-operate  with  Montrose, 
was  beheaded  at  Edinburgh  ;  and  Urry,  who  had  been 
sometimes  the  enemy,  sometimes  the  follower  of  Mont- 
rose, was  executed  with  others  of  the  Marquis's  principal 
followers. 

The  unfortunate  Duke  of  Hamilton,  a  man  of  gentle 
'nit  indecis:ve  character,  was  taken,  as  I  have  told  von, 


STATE  OF  PARTIES  IN  SCOTI.ANF .        177 

in  his  attempt  to  invade  England  arid  deliver  the  King, 
whom  he  seems  to  have  served  with  fidelity,  though  lie 
fell  under  his  suspicion,  and  even  suffered  a  long  impris- 
onment by  the  royal  order.  While  he  was  confined  at 
Windsor,  Charles,  previous  to  his  trial,  was  brought  there 
by  the  soldiers.  The  dethroned  King  was  permitted  a 
momentary  interview  with  the  subject,  who  had  lost  for- 
tune and  liberty  in  his  cause.  Hamilton  burst  into  tears, 
and  flung  himself  at  the  King's  feet,  exclaiming,  "  My 
dear  master!" — "I  have  been  a  dear  master  to  you  in- 
deed," said  Charles,  kindly  raising  him.  After  the  exe- 
cution of  the  King,  Hamilton,  with  the  Earl  of  Holland, 
Lord  Capel,  and  others,  who  had  promoted  the  rising  of 
the  royalists  on  different  points,  were  condemned  to  be 
beheaded.  A  stout  old  cavalier,  Sir  John  Owen,  was  one 
of  the  number.  When  the  sentence  was  pronounced,  he 
exclaimed  it  was  a  great  honour  to  a  poor  Welsh  knight 
to  be  beheaded  with  so  many  nobles,  adding,  with  an  oath, 
"  I  thought  they  would  have  hanged  me."  This  gallant 
old  man's  life  was  spared,  when  his  companions  in  mis- 
fortune were  executed. 

While  these  bloody  scenes  were  proceeding,  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  Scottish  Parliament  continued  to  carry 
on  the  treaty  with  King  Charles.  He  had  nearly  broken 
it  off,  when  Montrose's  execution  was  reported  to  him ; 
but  a  sense  of  his  own  duplicity  in  maintaining  a  treaty 
with  the  Parliament,  while  he  gave  Montrose  a  commission 
to  invade  and  make  war  on  them,  smothered  his  com- 
plaints on  the  subject.  At  length  Charles,  seeing  no  other 
resource,  agreed  to  accept  the  crown  of  Scotland  on  the 
terms  offered,  which  were  those  of  the  most  absolute  com- 
pliance with  the  will  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  in  civil 
affairs,  and  with  the  pleasure  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Kirk  in  ecclesiastical  concerns.  Above  all,  the  young 
King  promised  to  take  upon  him  the  obligations  of  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  to  further  them  by 
every  means  in  his  power.  On  these  conditions  the  treaty 
was  concluded  Charles  sailed  from  Holland,  and  arriv 
891 


.78  RECEPTION    OF    CHARLES    II. 

ing  on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  landed  near  the  mtuth   ol 
the  river  Spey,  and  advanced  to  Stirling. 

Scotland  was  at  this  time  divided  into  three  parties, 
highly  unfriendly  to  each  other.  There  were  FIRST,  the 
rigid  Presbyterians,  of  whom  Argyle  was  the  leader.  This 
was  the  faction  which  had  since  the  Whigamores'  Raid 
been  in  possession  of  the  supreme  power  of  government, 
and  with  their  leaders  the  King  had  made  his  treaty  in 
Holland.  SECONDLY,  the  moderate  Presbyterians,  called 
the  Engagers,  who  had  joined  with  Hamilton  in  his  in- 
cursion into  England.  These  were  headed  by  the  Earl 
of  Lanark,  who  succeeded  to  the  dukedom  of  Hamilton 
on  the  execution  of  his  brother  ;  by  Lauderdale,  a  man 
of  very  considerable  talents ;  Dunfermline  and  others. 
THIRDLY,  there  were  the  A  solute  Loyalists,  friends  and 
followers  of  Montrose ;  such  as  the  Marquis  of  Huntly, 
Lord  Ogilvy,  a  few  other  nobles  and  gentlemen,  and  per- 
haps some  Highland  chiefs,  too  ignorant  and  too  distant  to 
have  any  influence  in  state  affairs. 

As  all  these  three  parties  acknowledged,  with  more  01 
less  warmth,  the  sovereignty  of  King  Charles,  it  might 
have  seemed  no  very  difficult  matter  to  have  united  them 
in  the  same  patriotic  purpose  of  maintaining  the  national 
independence  of  the  kingdom.  But  successful  resistance 
to  the  English  was  a  task  to  which  the  ruling  party  thought 
themselves  perfectly  competent ;  they  entertained  the 
most  presumptuous  confidence  in  their  own  strength,  and 
their  clergy  assured  them,  that  so  far  from  the  aid  of  either 
Engagers  or  Malignants  being  profitable  to  them  in  the 
common  defence,  the  presence  of  any  such  profane  as- 
sistants would  draw  down  the  curse  of  Heaven  on  the 
cause,  which,  trusted  to  the  hands  of  true  Covenanters 
only,  could  not  fail  to  prosper. 

Argyle,  therefore,  and  his  friends,  received  the  young 
King  with  all  the  outward  gestures  of  profound  respect. 
But  they  took  care  to  give  him  his  will  in  no  one  partic- 
ular. They  excluded  from  attendance  on  his  person  all 
bis  English  adherents,  suspicious  of  their  attachment  to 
Prelacy  and  malignant  opinions.  The  ministers  beset  him 


PRESBYTERIAN    CLERGY.  17<? 

tvith  exhortations  and  sermons  of  immoderate  length,  in- 
troduced on  all  occasions,  and  exhausting  the  patience  of 
a  young  prince,  whose  strong  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  and 
impatience  of  serious  subjects,  led  him  to  receive  with 
heartfelt  contempt  and  disgust  the  homely  eloquence  of 
the  long-winded  orators.  The  preachers  also  gave 
him  offence  hy  choosing  frequently  for  their  themes  the 
sins  of  his  father,  the  idolatry  of  his  mother,  who  was  a 
Catholic,  and  his  own  ill-disguised  disposition  to  malignity- 
They  numbered  up  the  judgments  which,  they  affirmed, 
these  sins  had  brought  on  his  father's  house,  and  they 
prayed  that  they  might  not  be  followed  by  similar  punish- 
ment upon  Charles  himself.  These  ill-timed  and  ill- 
judged  admonitions  were  so  often  repeated,  as  to  impress 
on  the  young  King's  mind  a  sensation  of  dislike  and  dis- 
gust, with  which  he  remembered  the  Presbyterian  preach- 
ers as  long  as  he  lived. 

Sometimes  their  fanaticism  and  want  of  judgment  led 
to  ridiculous  scenes.  It  is  said,  that  upon  one  occasion  a 
devout  lady,  who  lived  opposite  to  the  royal  lodgings,  saw 
from  her  window  the  young  King  engaged  in  a  game  at 
cards,  or  some  other  frivolous  amusement,  which  the  rig- 
our of  the  Covenanters  denounced  as  sinful.  The  lady 
communicated  this  important  discovery  to  her  minister,  and 
it  reached  the  ears  of  the  Commission  of  the  Kirk,  who 
named  a  venerable  member  of  their  body  to  rebuke  the 
monarch  personally  for  this  act  of  backsliding.  The  cler- 
gyman to  whom  this  delicate  commission  was  intrusted,  was 
a  shrewd  old  man,  who  saw  no  great  wisdom  in  the  pro- 
ceeding of  his  brethren,  but  executed  their  commands  with 
courtly  dexterity,  and  summed  up  his  ghostly  admonition 
with  a  request,  that  when  his  Majesty  indulged  in  similar 
recreations,  he  would  be  pleased  to  take  the  precaution 
of  shutting  the  windows.  The  King  laughed,  and  was 
glad  to  escape  so  well  from  the  apprehended  lecture.  But 
events  were  fast  approaching  which  had  no  jesting  aspect. 

England,  to  which  you  must  now.  turn  your  attention, 
"had  totally  changed  its  outward  constitution  since  the 
death  of  tin  King.  Cromwell,  who,  using  the  victorious 


180  CROMWELL'S  INVASION 

army  as  his  tools,  was  already  in  the  real  possession  of  the 
supreme  power,  had  still  more  tasks  than  one  to  accom- 
plish, hefore  he  dared  venture  to  assume  the  external  ap- 
pearance of  it.  He  suffered,  therefore,  the  diminished 
and  mutilated  House  of  Commons  to  exist  for  a  season, 
during  which  the  philosophical  Republicans  of  the  party 
passed  resolutions  that  monarchy  should  never  be  again 
established  in  England  ;  that  the  power  of  the  Executive 
Government  should  be  lodged  in  a  Council  of  State ;  and 
that  the  House  of  Lords  should  be  abolished. 

Meantime,  Cromwell  led  in  person  a  part  of  his  victo- 
rious army  to  Ireland,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  more 
frightful  disorders  than  England,  or  even  Scotland.  These 
had  begun  by  the  Catholic  inhabitants  rising  upon  the 
Protestants,  and  murdering  many  thousands  of  them  in 
what  was  termed  the  Irish  Massacre.  This  had  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  general  war  between  the  religions ;  but  at 
length  the  address  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  as  devoted  a 
loyalist  as  Montrose,  contrived  to  engage  a  large  portion 
of  the  Catholics  on  the  side  of  Charles ;  and  Ireland 
became  the  place  of  refuge  to  all  the  Cavaliers  or  remains 
of  the  royal  party,  who  began  to  assume  a  formidable 
appearance  in  that  island.  The  arrival  of  Cromwell  sud- 
denly changed  this  gleam  of  fortune  into  cloud  and  storm. 
Wherever  this  fated  General  appeared  he  was  victorious, 
and  in  Ireland,  in  order  perhaps  to  strike  terror  into  a 
fierce  people,  for  Oliver  Cromwell  was  not  blood-thirsty 
by  disposition,  he  made  dreadful  execution  among  the 
vanquished,  particularly  at  the  storming  of  the  town  of 
Drogheda,  where  his  victorious  troops  spared  neither  sex 
nor  age.  He  now  returned  to  England,  with  even  greater 
terror  attached  to  his  name  than  before. 

The  new  Commonwealth  of  England  had  no  purpose 
that  the  son  of  the  King  whom  they  had  put  to  death, 
should  be  suffered  to  establish  himself  quietly  in  the  sister 
kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  enjoy  the  power  when  oppor- 
tunity offered  of  again  calling  to  arms  his  numerous  ad- 
herents in  England,  and  disturbing  or  perhaps  destroying 
tiieii  new  modelled  republic.  They  were  resolved  to 


OF  IRELAND.  l&l 

prevent  this  danger  by  making  war  on  Scotland,  whilst  still 
weakened  by  her  domestic  dissensions  ;  and  compelling 
her  to  adopt  the  constitution  of  a  republic,  to  become  con 
federated  with  their  own.  This  proposal  was  of  course 
haughtily  rejected  by  the  Scots,  as  it  implied  a  renuncia- 
tion at  once  of  King  and  Kirk,  and  a  total  alteration  of  the 
Scottish  constitution  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  government. 
The  ruling  parties  of  both  nations,  therefore,  prepared  for 
the  contest. 

The  rigid  Presbyterians  in  Scotland  showed  now  a 
double  anxiety  to  exclude  .  from  their  army  all,  however 
otherwise  well  qualified  to  assist  in  such  a  crisis,  whom  they 
regarded  as  suspicious  in  point  of  doctrine,  whether  as 
absolute  Malignants,  or  as  approaching  nearer  to  their  own 
doctrines,  by  professing  a  moderate  and  tolerant  attach- 
ment to  Presbytery. 

Yet  even  without  the  assistance  of  these  excluded  par- 
ties, the  Convention  of  Estates  assembled  a  fine  army, 
full  of  mtn  enthusiastic  in  the  cause  in  which  they  were 
about  to  fight ;  and  feeling  all  the  impulse  which  could 
be  given  by  the  rude  eloquence  of  their  favourite  minis- 
ters. Unfortunately  the  preachers  were  not  disposed  to 
limit  themselves  to  the  task  of  animating  the  courage  of 
the  soldiers  ;  but  were  so  presumptuous  as  to  interfere 
with,  arid  control  the  plans  of  the  General,  and  move- 
ments of  the  army. 

The  army  of  England,  consisting  almost  entirely  of 
Independents,  amongst  whom  any  man  who  chose  might 
exert  the  office  of  a  clergyman,  had  a  resemblance  to  the 
Presbyterian  troops  of  Scotland,  for  both  armies  profess- 
ed to  appeal  to  Heaven  for  the  justice  of  their  cause ; 
and  both  resounded  with  psalms,  prayers,  exhortations, 
and  religious  exercises,  to  confirm  the  faith,  and  animate 
the  zeal  of  the  soldiers.  Both  used  the  same  language 
in  their  proclamations  against  each  other,  and  it  was  such 
as  implied  a  war  rather  on  account  of  religion  than  of 
temporal  interests.  The  Scottish  proclamations  declared 
the  army  commanded  by  Cromwell  to  be  an  union  of  the 


182  CROMWELL'S   INVASION 

most  perverse  heretical  sectaries,  of  every  different  per- 
sua*-.on,  agreeing  in  nothing,  saving  their  desire  to  tffect 
tli'  ruin  of  the  unity  and  discipline  of  the  Christian 
C  tirch,  and  die  destruction  of  the  Covenant,  to  which 
IT  ist  of  their  leaders  had  sworn  fidelity.  The  army  of 
(  -ormvell  replied  to  them  in  the  same  style.  They  de- 
(  ared  that  they  valued  the  Christian  Churches  ten  thou- 
•  md  times  more  than  their  own  lives.  They  protested 
nat  they  were  not  only  a  rod  of  iron  to  dash  asunder  the 
common  enemies,  but  a  hedge  (though  unworthy)  about 
ihe  divine  vineyard.  As  for  the  Covenant,  they  protest- 
ed that,  would  it  not  seem  to  make  it  an  object  of  idola- 
try, they  would  be  content,  if  called  upon  to  encounter 
the  Scots  in  this  quarrel,  to  place  the  Covenant  on  the 
point  of  their  pikes,  and  let  God  himself  judge  whether 
they  or  their  opponents  had  best  observed  the  obligations 
of  that  national  engagement. 

Although  the  contending  nations  thus  nearly  resembled 
each  other  in  their  ideas  and  language,  there  was  betwixt 
the  Scottish  and  English  soldiers  one  difference,  and  it 
proved  a  material  one.  In  the  English  army  the  officers 
insisted  upon  being  preachers,  and  though  their  doctrine 
was  wild  enough,  their  ignorance  of  theology  had  no  effect 
on  military  events.  But  with  the  Scots,  the  Presbyterian 
clergy  were  unhappily  seized  with  the  opposite  rage  of 
acting  as  officers  and  generals,  and  their  skill  in  their  own 
profession  of  divinity  could  not  redeem  the  errors  which 
they  committed  in  the  art  of  war. 

Fairfax  having  declined  the  command  of  the  English 
army,  his  conscience  (for  he  was  a  Presbyterian)  not  per- 
mitting him  to  engage  in  the  war,  Cromwell  accepted 
with  joy  the  supreme  military  authority,  and  prepared  for 
the  invasion  of  Scotland. 

The  wars  between  the  sister  kingdoms  seemed  now 
about  to  be  rekindled,  after  the  interval  of  two-thirds  of 
a  century  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  greatly  superior  power 
of  England,  there  was  no  room  for  absolute  confidence 
in  her  ultimate  success.  The  Scots,  though  divided  into 
parties  sc  far  as  church  government  was  concerned 


OF    SCOTLAND.  185 

were  unanimous  in  acknowledging  the  right  of  King 
Charles,  whereas  the  English  were  far  from  making  coin 
mon  cause  against  his  claims.  On  the  contrary,  if  the 
stern  army  of  Sectaries,  now  about  to  take  the  field, 
should  sustain  any  great  disaster,  the  Cavaliers  of  Eng- 
land, with  great  part  of  the  Presbyterians  in  that  country, 
were  alike  disposed  to  put  the  King  once  more  at  the 
head  of  the  government ;  so  that  the  fate  not  of  Scotland 
alone,  but  of  England  also,  was  committed  to  the  event 
of  the  present  war. 

Neither  were  the  armies  and  generals  opposed  to  each 
other  unworthy  of  the  struggle.  If  the  army  of  Crom- 
well consisted  of  veteran  soldiers,  inured  to  constant  vic- 
tory, that  of  Scotland  was  fresh,  numerous,  and  masters 
of  their  own  strong  country,  which  was  the  destined 
scene  of  action.  If  Cromwell  had  defeated  the  most 
celebrated  generals  of  the  Cavaliers,  David  Lesley,  the 
effective  commander-in-chief  in  Scotland,  had  been  vic- 
tor over  Montrose,  more  renowned  perhaps  than  any  of 
them.  If  Cromwell  was  a  general  of  the  most  decisive 
character,  celebrated  for  the  battles  which  he  had  won, 
Lesley  was,  by  early  education,  a  trained  soldier,  more 
skilful  than  his  antagonist  in  taking  positions,  defending 
passes,  and  all  the  previous  arrangements  of  a  campaign. 
With  these  advantages  on  the  different  sides,  the  eventual 
struggle  commenced. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1650,  Cromwell  invaded 
Scotland  at  the  head  of  his  veteran  and  well-disciplined 
troops.  But,  on  marching  through  Berwickshire  and 
East  Lothian,  he  found  that  the  country  was  abandoned 
by  the  population,  and  stripped  of  every  thing  which 
could  supply  the  hostile  army.  Nothing  was  to  be  seen 
save  old  spectre-looking  women,  clothed  in  white  flannel, 
who  told  the  English  officers  that  all  the  men  had  taken 
arms,  under  command  of  the  Barons. 

Subsisting  chiefly  on  the  provisions  supplied  by  a  fleet, 
which,  sailing  along  the  coast,  accompanied  his  move- 
ments, the  English  General  approached  the  capital,  where 
Lesley  had  settled  his  head-quarters.  The  right  wmg  of 


184  CKOMWELL'S  INVASION  OF  SCOTLAND. 

the  Scottish  army  rested  upon  the  high  grounds  at  the 
rise  of  Arthur's  Seat,  and  the  left  wing  was  posted  at 
Leith,  while  the  high  bank,  formerly  called  Leith  Walk, 
made  a  part  of  his  lines,  which,  defended  by  a  numerous 
artillery,  completely  protected  the  metropolis.  Crom- 
well skirmished  with  the  Scottish  advanced  posts  near  to 
Restalrig,  but  his  cuirassiers  were  so  warmly  encountered, 
that  they  gained  no  advantage,  and  their  General  was 
obliged  to  withdraw  to  Musselburgh.  His  next  effort 
was  made  from  the  westward. 

The  English  army  made  a  circuit  to  Collinton,  Red- 
hall,  and  other  places  near  to  the  eastern  extremity  of  the 
Pentland  Hills,  from  which  Cromwell  hoped  to  advance 
on  Edinburgh.  But  Lesley  was  immediately  on  his 
guard.  He  left  his  position  betwixt  Edinburgh  and 
Leith,  and  took  one  which  covered  the  city  to  the  west- 
ward, and  was  protected  by  the  Water  of  Leith,  and  the 
several  cuts,  drains,  and  mill-leads,  at  Saughton,  Colt- 
bridge,  and  the  houses  and  villages  in  that  quarter.  Here 
Cromwell  again  found  the  Scots  in  order  of  battle,  and 
again  was  obliged  to  withdraw  after  a  distant  cannonade. 

The  necessity  of  returning  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
his  fleet,  obliged  Cromwell  to  march  back  to  his  encamp- 
ment at  Musselburgh.  Nor  was  he  permitted  to  remain 
there  in  quiet.  At  the  dead  of  night,  a  strong  body  of 
cavalry,  called  the  regiment  of  the  Kirk,  well  armed  at 
all  points,  broke  into  the  English  lines,  with  loud  cries  of, 
"  God  and  the  Kirk !  all  is  ours."  It  was  with  some 
difficulty  that  Cromwell  rallied  his  soldiers  upon  this  sud- 
den alarm,  in  which  he  sustained  considerable  loss,  though 
the  assailants  were  finally  compelled  to  retreat. 

The  situation  of  the  English  army  now  became  criti- 
cal ; — their  provisions  were  like  to  be  exhausted,  the 
communication  with  the  fleet  grew  daily  more  precarious, 
while  Lesley,  with  the  same  prudence  which  had  hithert 
guided  his  defence,  baflled  all  the  schemes  of  the  Eng 
lish  leader,  without  exposing  his  army  to  the  risk  of  p 
general  action,  until  Cromwell,  fairly  outgeneralled  by 


BATTLE    OF    DUNBAR.  18.3 

the  address  ofliis  enemy,  was  compelled  to  retiie  toward? 
England. 

Lesley,  on  his  part,  left  his  lines  without  delay,  for  the 
purpose  of  intercepting  the  retreat  of  the  English.  Mov- 
ing by  a  shorter  line,  he  took  possession  with  his  army  of 
the  skirts  of  Lammermoor,  a  ridge  of  hills  terminating  on 
the  sea  near  the  town  of  Dun  bar,  abounding  with  diffi- 
cult passes,  all  of  which  he  occupied  strongly.  Here  he 
proposed  to  await  the  attack  of  the  English,  with  every 
chance,  nay,  almost  with  the  certainty,  of  gaining  a  great 
and  decisive  victory. 

Cromwell  was  reduced  to  much  perplexity.  To  force 
his  way,  it  was  necessary  to  attack  a  tremendous  pass 
called  Cockburn's  path,  where,  according  to  Cromwell's 
own  description,  one  man  might  do  more  to  defend,  than 
ten  to  make  way.  And  if  he  engaged  in  this  desperate 
enterprise,  he  was  liable  to  be  attacked  by  the  numerous 
forces  of  Lesley  in  flank  and  rear.  He  saw  all  the  dan- 
ger, and  entertained  thoughts  of  embarking  his  foot  on 
board  of  his  ships,  and  cutting  his  own  way,  as  he  best 
could,  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry. 

At  this  moment,  the  interference  of  the  Presbyterian 
preachers,  and  the  influence  which  they  possessed  over 
the  Scottish  army  and  General,  ruined  this  fair  promise 
of  success.  In  spite  of  all  the  prudent  remonstrances  of 
Lesley,  they  insisted  that  the  Scottish  army  should  be 
led  from  their  strong  position,  to  attack  the  English  upon 
equal  ground.  This,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  they 
called  going  down  against  the  Philistines  at  Gilgal. 

Cromwell  had  slept  at  the  Duke  of  Roxburghe's  house, 
called  Broxmouth,  and  his  army  were  stationed  in  the  park 
there,  when  he  received  news  that  the  Scots  were  leaving 
their  fastnesses,  and  about  to  hazard  battle.  He  exclaim- 
ed, "  that  God  had  delivered  them  into  his  hands ;"  and 
calling  for  his  horse,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
troops.  Coming  to  the  head  of  a  regiment  of  Lanca- 
shire men,  he  found  one  of  their  officers,  while  they  were 
in  the  act  of  marching  to  battle,  in  a  fit  of  sudden  eiuhu- 


186  CROMWELL'S  INVASION 

siasni  holding  forth  or  preaching  to  his  men.  Cromut.  1\ 
also  listened,  and  seemed  affected  by  his  discourse.  At 
this  moment  the  sun  showed  his  broad  orb  on  the  level 
surface  of  the  sea,  which  is  close  to  the  scene  of  action. 
"Let  the  Lord  arise,"  he  said,  "and  let  his  enemies  he 
scattered ;"  and  presently  after;  looking  upon  the  field 
where  the  battle  had  now  commenced,  he  added,  "  I 
profess  they  flee." 

Cromwell's  hopes  did  not  deceive  him.  The  hasty 
Scottish  levies,  thus  presumptuously  opposed  to  the  vet- 
eran soldiers  of  Cromwell,  proved  unequal  to  standing 
the  shock.  Two  regiments  fought  bravely,  and  were  al- 
most all  cut  off;  but  the  greater  part  of  Lesley's  army 
fell  into  confusion  without  much  resistance.  Great  slaugh- 
ter ensued,  and  many  prisoners  were  made,  whom  the 
cruelty  of  the  English  government  destined  to  a  fate  hith- 
erto unknown  in  Christian  warfare.  They  transported  to 
the  English  settlements  in  America  those  unfortunate 
captives,  subjects  of  an  independent  kingdom,  who  bore 
arms  by  order  of  their  own  lawful  government,  and  there 
sold  them  for  slaves. 

The  decisive  defeat  at  Dunbar  opened  the  whole  of 
the  south  of  Scotland  to  Cromwell.  The  Independents 
found  a  few  friends  and  brother  sectaries  among  the  gen- 
try, who  had  been  hitherto  deterred,  by  the  fear  of  the 
Presbyterians,  from  making  their  opinions  public.  Almost 
all  the  strong  places  on  the  south  side  of  the  Forth  were 
won  by  the  arms  of  the  English,  or  yielded  by  the  ti- 
midity of  their  defenders.  Edinburgh  Castle  was  sur- 
rendered, not  without  suspicion  of  gross  treachery  ;  and 
Tantallon,  Hume,  Roslin,  and  Borthwick,  with  other  for- 
tresses, fell  into  their  hands. 

Internal  dissension  added  to  the  calamitous  state  of 
Scotland.  The  Committee  of  Estates,  with  the  King, 
and  the  remainder  of  Lesley's  army,  retreated  to  Stirling, 
where  they  still  hoped  to  make  a  stand,  by  defending  the 
passes  of  the  Forth.  A  Parliament,  held  at  Perth,  were 
in  this  extremity  disposed  to  relax  in  the  extreme  rigoui 
of  their  exclusive  doctrines,  and  to  admit  into  the  army 


OF    SCOTLAND.  187 

which  they  laboured  to  reinforce,  such  of  the  moderate 
Presbyterians,  or  Engagers,  and  even  of  the  Royalists 
and  Maiigoants,  as  inclined  to  make  a  formal  confession 
of  their  former  errors.  The  Royalists  readily  enough 
complied  with  this  requisition;  but  as  their  pretended 
repentance  was  generally  regarded  as  a  mere  farce,  sub- 
mitted to  that  they  might  obtain  leave  to  bear  arms  for 
the  King,  the  stricter  Presbyterians  regarded  this  compro- 
mise with  Malignants  as  a  sinful  seeking  for  help  from 
Egypt.  The  Presbyterians  of  the  western  counties,  in 
particular,  carried  this  opinion  so  far,  as  to  think  this  pe- 
riod of  national  distress  an  auspicious  time  for  disclaim- 
ing the  King's  interest  and  title.  Refusing  to  allow  that 
the  victory  of  Dunbar  was  owing  to  the  military  skill  of 
Cromwell,  and  the  disciplined  valour  of  his  troops,  they 
set  it  down  as  a  chastisement  justly  inflicted  on  the  Scot- 
tish nation  for  espousing  the  Royal  cause.  Under  this 
separate  banner  there  assembled  an  army  of  about  font 
thousand  men,  commanded  by  Kerr  and  Strachan.  They 
were  resolved,  at  the  same  time,  to  oppose  the  English 
invasion,  and  to  fight  with  the  King's  forces,  and  thus 
embroil  the  kingdom  in  a  threefold  war.  The  leaders  of 
this  third  party,  who  were  called  Remonstrators,  made  a 
smart  attack  on  a  large  body  of  English  troops,  stationed 
in  Hamilton  under  General  Lambert,  and  were  at  first 
successful ;  but  falling  into  disorder,  owing  to  their  very 
success,  they  were  ultimately  defeated.  Kerr,  one  of 
their  leaders,  was  wounded,  and  made  prisoner ;  and 
Strachan  soon  afterwards  revolted,  and  joined  the  Eng- 
lish army. 

Cromwell,  in  the  meanwhile,  made  the  fairest  promises 
to  all  who  would  listen  to  him,  and  laboured,  not  altogeth- 
er in  vain,  to  impress  the  Presbyterian  party  with  a  belief, 
that  they  had  better  join  with  the  Independents,  although 
disallowing  of  church-government,  and  thus  obtain  peace 
and  a  close  alliance  with  England,  than  adhere  to  the 
cause  of  the  King,  who,  with  his  father's  house,  had,  h<> 
said,  been  so  long  the  troublers  of  Israel.  And  here  J 
may  interrupt  the  course  of  public  events,  to  tell  you  an 


183          CROMWELL'S  INVASION  OF  SCOTLAND. 

anecdote  not  generally  known,  but  curious  as  illustrating 
the  character  of  Cromwell. 

Shortly  after  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  Cromwell  visited 
Glasgow ;  and  upon  Sunday  attended  the  Presbyterian 
service  in  the  principal  church  of  that  city.  The  preach- 
er, a  rigid  Presbyterian,  was  nothing  intimidated  by  the 
presence  of  the  English  General ;  but  entering  freely 
upon  state  affairs,  which  were  then  a  common  topic  in 
the  pulpit,  he  preached  boldly  on  the  errors  and  heresies 
of  the  independent  sectaries,  insisted  on  the  duty  of  re- 
sisting their  doctrines,  and  even  spoke  with  little  respect 
of  the  person  of  Cromwell  himself.  An  officer  who  sat 
behind  Cromwell,  whispered  something  in  his  ear  more 
than  once,  and  the  General  as  often  seemed  to  impose 
silence  upon  him.  The  curiosity  of  the  congregation 
was  strongly  excited.  At  length  the  service  was  ended, 
and  Cromwell  was  in  the  act  of  leaving  the  church,  when 
he  cast  his  eyes  on  one  Wilson,  a  mechanic,  who  had  long 
resided  at  Glasgow,  and  called  on  him  by  name.  The 
man  no  sooner  saw  the  General  take  notice  of  him  than 
he  ran  away.  Cromwell  directed  that  he  should  be  fol- 
lowed, and  brought  before  him,  but  without  injury.  At 
the  same  time  he  sent  a  civil  message  to  the  clergyman 
who  had  preached,  desiring  to  see  him  at  his  quarters. 
These  things  augmented  the  curiosity  of  the  town's  peo- 
ple ;  and  when  they  saw  Wilson  led  as  prisoner  to  the 
General's  apartments,  many  remained  about  the  door, 
watching  the  result.  Wilson  soon  returned,  and  joyfully 
showed  his  acquaintances  some  money  which  the  English 
General  had  given  him  to  drink  his  health.  His  business 
with  Cromwell  was  easily  explained.  This  man  had 
been  son  of  a  footman  who  had  attended  James  VI.  to 
England.  By  some  accident  Wilson  had  served  his  ap- 
prenticeship to  a  shoemaker  in  the  same  town  where 
Cromwell's  father  lived,  had  often  played  with  Master 
Oliver  while  they  were  both  children,  and  had  obliged 
him  by  making  balls  and  other  playthings  for  him.  WTher. 
Wilson  saw  that  his  old  companion  recognised  him,  he 
ran  awav,  because,  recollecting  his  father  had  been  a 


CORONATION    OF    CHARLES    II.  189 

servr.i.t  of  the  royal  family,  he  thought  the  General,  who 
was  known  to  have  brought  the  late  King  to  the  block, 
might  nourish  ill-will  against  all  who  were  connected  with 
nim.  But  Cromwell  had  received  him  kindly,  spoken 
of  their  childish  acquaintance,  and  gave  him  some  money. 
The  familiarity  with  which  he  seemed  to  treat  him,  en 
couraged  Wilson  to  ask  his  former  friend  what  it  was  that 
passed  betwixt  the  officer  and  him,  when  the  preacher 
was  thundering  from  the  pulpit  against  the  sectaries  and 
their  General.  "  He  called  the  minister  an  insolent  ras- 
cal," said  Cromwell,  not  unwilling,  perhaps,  that  his  for- 
bearance should  be  made  public,  "  and  asked  my  leave 
to  pull  him  out  of  the  pulpit  by  the  ears ;  and  I  com- 
manded him  to  sit  still,  telling  him  the  minister  was  one 
fool,  and  he  another."  This  anecdote  serves  to  show 
Cromwell's  recollection  of  persons  and  faces.  He  next 
gave  audience  to  the  preacher,  and  used  arguments  with 
him  which  did  not  reach  the  public ;  but  were  so  con- 
vincing, that  he  pronounced  a  second  discourse  in  the 
evening,  in  a  tone  much  mitigated  towards  Independency 
•and  its  professors. 

While  the  south  of  Scotland  was  overawed,  and  the 
Western  Remonstrators  were  dispersed  by  Cromwell,  the 
Scottish  Parliament,  though  retired  beyond  the  Forth, 
st'.Il  maintained  a  show  of  decided  opposition.  They  re- 
solved upon  the  coronation  of  Charles,  a  ceremony  hith- 
erto deferred,  but  which  they  determined  now  to  perform, 
as  a  solemn  pledge  of  their  resolution  to  support  the  con- 
stitution and  religion  of  Scotland  to  the  last. 

But  the  melancholy  solemnity  had  been  nearly  prevent- 
ed by  the  absence  of  the  principal  personage.  Charles, 
disgustea  with  the  invectives  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy, 
and  perhaps  remembering  the  fate  of  his  father  at  New- 
castle, formed  a  hasty  purpose  of  flying  from  the  Presby- 
terian camp.  He  had  not  been  sufficiently  aware  of  the 
weakness  of  the  Royalists,  who  recommended  this  wild 
step,  and  he  actually  went  off  to  the  hills.  But  he  found 
Duly  a  few  Highlanders  at  Clova,  without  the  appearnnce 
>/  an  army,  which  he  had  promised  mrnscif,  and  was 


190  MANCEUVR1NG    OK    THE    ENGLISH 

easily  induced  to  return  to  the  camp  with  a  party  who 
had  been  despatched  in  pursuit  of  him. 

This  excursion,  which  was  called  the  Start,  did  n«i 
til-cully  tend  to  increase  confidence  betwixt  the  young 
King  mid  his  Presbyterian  counsellors.  The  ceremony 
of  the  coronation  "was  performed  with  such  solemnities 
as  the  time  admitted,  but  mingled  with  circumstances 
which  must  have  been  highly  disgusting  to  Charles.  The 
confirmation  of  the  Covenant  was  introduced  as  nn  es- 
sential part  of  the  solemnity  ;  and  the  coronation  was 
preceded  by  a  national  fast  and  humiliation,  expressly 
held  on  account  of  the  sins  of  the  Royal  Family.  A 
suspected  hand,  that  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  placed  an 
nsecure  crown  on  the  head  of  the  son,  whose  father  he 
had  been  one  of  the  principal  instruments  in  dethroning. 

These  were  bad  omens.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
King  enjoyed  more  liberty  than  before ;  most  of  the  En- 
gagers had  resumed  their  seats  in  Parliament;  and  many 
Royalist  officers  were  received  into  the  army. 

Determined  at  this  time  not  to  be  tempted  to  a  disad- 
vantageous battle,  the  King,  who  assumed  the  command 
of  the  arrny  in  person,  took  up  a  line  in  front  of  Stirling, 
having  in  his  front  the  river  of  Carron.  Cromwell  ap- 
proached, but  could  neither  with  prudence  attack  the  Scots 
in  their  lines,  nor  find  means  of  inducing  them  to  hazard 
a  battle,  unless  upon  great  advantage.  After  the  armies 
had  confronted  each  other  for  more  than  a  month,  Crom- 
well despatched  Colonel  Overton  into  Fife,  to  turn  the 
left  flank  of  the  Scottish  army.,  and  intercept  their  sup- 
plies. He  was  encountered  near  the  town  of  Inverkeith- 
ing  by  the  Scots,  commanded  by  Holborn  and  Brown. 
The  first  of  these  officers  behaved  basely,  and  perhaps 
treacherously.  Brown  fought  well  and  bravely,  but 
finally  sustaining  a  total  defeat,  was  made  prisoner,  and 
afterwards  died  of  grief. 

The  situation  of  the  main  Scottish  army,  under  Charles 
in  person,  became  hazardous  after  this  defeat,  for  their 
position  was  rendered  precarious,  by  the  footing  which 
the  English  tbtained  in  the  counties  of  Fife  and  Kinross, 


AND    SCOTTISH    ARMIKS.  191 

which  enabled  them  to  intercept  the  King's  supplies  and 
communications  from  the  north.  In  this  distressed  situa- 
tion Charles  adopted  a  bold  and  decisive  measure.  He 
resolved  to  transfer  the  war  from  Scotland  to  England, 
and,  suddenly  raising  his  camp,  he  moved  to  the  south- 
westward  by  rapid  inarches,  hoping  to  rouse  his  friends 
in  England  to  arms,  before  Cromwell  could  overtake  him. 
But  the  Cavaliers  of  England  were  now  broken  and  dis- 
pirited, and  were,  besides,  altogether  unprepared  for  this 
hasty  invasion,  which  seemed  rather  the  effect  of  despair 
than  the  result  of  deliberate  and  settled  resolution.  The 
Presbyterians,  though  rather  inclined  to  the  Royal  cause, 
were  still  less  disposed  to  hazard  a  junction  with  him, 
until  terms  of  mutual  accommodation  could  be  settled. 
They  were  divided  and  uncertain,  while  the  republicans 
were  resolved  and  active. 

The  English  militia  assembled  under  Lambert  to  op- 
pose Charles  in  front,  and  Cromwell  followed  close  in  his 
rear,  to  take  every  advantage  that  could  offer.  The  Scots 
reached  without  much  opposition  the  city  of  Worcester, 
where,  3d  September,  1651,  the  militia,  commanded  by 
Lambert,  and  the  regular  forces  under  Cromwell,  attacked 
the  Royalists  with  double  the  number  of  their  forces. 
Clarendon  and  other  English  authors  represent  the  Scot- 
tish army  as  making  little  resistance.  Cromwell,  on  the 
contrary,  talks  of  the  battle  of  Worcester,  in  his  peculiar 
phraseology,  as  "  a  stiff  business — a  very  glorious  mercy 
— as  stiff  a  contest  as  he  had  ever  beheld."  But,  well  or 
ill  disputed,  the  day  was  totally  lost.  Three  thousand 
men  were  slain  in  the  field,  ten  thousand  were  taken,  and 
such  of  them  as  survived  their  wounds,  and  the  horrors 
of  overcrowded  jails,  were  shipped  off  as  slaves  for  the 
plantations. 

Charles  escaped  from  the  field,  and  concealed  himself 
in  obscure  retreats,  under  various  disguises.  At  one  time 
he  was  obliged  to  hide  himself  in  the  boughs  of  a  spread- 
ing oak  tree  ;  hence  called  the  Royal  Oak.  At  another 
time  he  rode  before  a  lady,  Mrs.  Lane,  in  the  quality  of 
a  groom ;  and  in  this  disguise  passed  through  a  part  of 


1 92  PRESERVATION    OF    THE 

ihe  Parliament  forces.  After  infinite  fatigue,  many  ro- 
mantic adventures,  and  tlie  most  imminent  risk  of  discov- 
ery, he  at  length  escaped  by  sea,  and  for  eight  years  con- 
tinued to  wander  from  one  foreign  court  to  another,  a  poor, 
neglected,  and  insulted  adventurer,  claimant  of  thrones, 
which  he  seemed  destined  never  to  possess. 

The  defeat  at  Worcester  was  a  death-blow  to  the  resist- 
ance of  the  King's  party  in  Scotland.  The  Parliament, 
driven  from  Stirling  to  the  Highlands,  endeavoured  in  vain 
to  assemble  new  forces.  The  English  troops,  after  Crom- 
well's departure,  were  placed  under  the  command  of 
General  Monk,  who  now  began  to  make  a  remarkable 
figure  in  those  times.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  good  birth, 
had  been  in  arms  for  the  King's  service,  but  being  made 
prisoner,  had  finally  embraced  the  party  of  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  fought  for  them  in  Ireland.  He  was  accounted 
a  brave  and  skilful  commander,  totally  free  from  the  spirit 
of  fanaticism  so  general  in  the  army  of  Cromwell,  and  a 
man  of  deep  sagacity,  and  a  cold  reserved  temper.  Un- 
der Monk's  conduct,  seconded  by  that  of  Overton,  Alured, 
and  other  parliamentary  officers,  the  cities,  castles,  and 
fortresses  of  Scotland  were  reduced  one  after  another. 
The  partial  resistance  of  the  wealthy  seaport  of  Dundee, 
in  particular,  was  punished  with  the  extremities  of  fire  and 
sword,  so  that  other  towns  became  terrified,  and  surren- 
dered without  opposition. 

The  castle  of  Dunottar,  in  Kincardineshire,  the  hered- 
itary fortress  of  the  Earls  Marisclial,  made  an  honourable 
defence  under  John  Ogilvy  of  Barras.  It  is  situated  upon 
a  rock,  almost  separated  from  the  land  by  a  deep  ravine 
on  the  one  side,  and  overhanging  the  ocean  on  the  other. 
In  this  strong  fortress  the  Honours  of  Scotland,  as  they 
were  called,  had  been  deposited  after  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar.  These  were  the  crown,  sceptre,  and  sword  of  state, 
the  symbols  of  Scottish  sovereignty,  which  were  regarded 
by  the  nation  with  peculiar  veneration.  The  terror  was 
great  lest  pledges,  with  which  the  national  honour  was  so 
intimately  connected,  should  fall  into  tiie  hands  of  foreign 
schismatics  and  republicans.  On  the  other  hand,  the 


SCOTTISH    REGALIA.  193 

English,  ardently  desirous  to  possess  themselves  of  these 
trophies,  (the  rather  that  they  had  formed  a  disproportion- 
ed  idea  of  their  intrinsic  value,)  besieged  the  castle  close- 
ly, and  blockaded  it  by  sea  and  land.  As  their  provisions 
began  to  fail,  the  Governor  foresaw  that  farther  defence 
must  speedily  become  impossible  ;  and,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Mr.  Granger,  minister  of  Kinneff,  he  formed  a 
stratagem  for  securing  the  ancient  and  venerable  regalia 
from  the  dishonour  which  threatened  them.  The  first 
preparation  was  to  spread  a  report,  that  these  national 
treasures  had  been  carried  abroad  by  Sir  John  Keith,  a 
younger  son  of  the  Earl  Marischal,  ancestor  of  the  family 
of  Kintore.  Mrs.  Granger,  the  minister's  wife,  was  the 
principal  agent  in  the  subsequent  part  of  the  scheme. 
Having  obtained  of  the  English  general  the  permission  to 
to  bring  out  of  the  castle  some  hards  (or  bundles)  of  lint, 
which  she  said  was  her  property,  she  had  the  courage 
and  address  to  conceal  the  regalia  within  the  hards  of 
lint,  and  carried  them  boldly  through  the  English  camp, 
at  the  risk  of  much  ill  usage,  had  she  been  discovered  in 
an  attempt  to  deprive  the  greedy  soldiery  of  their  prey. 
She  played  her  part  so  boldly,  that  she  imposed  on  the 
general  himself,  who  courteously  saluted  her,  and  helped 
her  to  mount  on  horseback  as  she  left  the  encampment, 
little  guessing  with  what  a  valuable  part  of  his  expected 
booty  she  was  loaded  at  the  moment.  Arriving  with  her 
precious  charge  at  Kinneff,  the  minister  buried  the  relics? 
of  royalty  under  the  pulpit  of  his  church,  and  visited  then: 
from  time  to  time,  in  order  to  wrap  them  in  fresh  packages, 
and  preserve  them  from  injury.  Suspicion  attached  to 
the  Governor  of  Dunottar  ;  and  when  the  castle  was  finally 
surrendered,  for  want  of  provisions,  he  was  rigorously 
dealt  with,  imprisoned,  and  even  tortured,  to  make  him 
discover  where  the  regalia  were  concealed.  His  lady, 
who  had  been  active  in  the  stratagem,  was  subjected  to 
similar  severities,  as  were  also  the  minister  of  Kinneff  and 
his  courageous  spouse.  Alt,  however,  persisted  in  keep 
ing  the  secrot.  Rewards  were  distributed,  after  the  Re 

892 


194  RKSISTANCE    TO    THE    ENGLISH. 

s'ioration,  to  those  who  had  been  concerned  in  saving  the 
Honours,  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  ac- 
curately accommodated  to  toe  merits  of  the  parties.  Sir 
John  Keith,  whose  name  had  only  been  used  in  the  trans- 
action as  a  blind,  was  created  Earl  of  Kintore,  and  Ogilvy 
was  made  a  baronet  ;  but  the  courageous  minister,  with 
his  heroic  wife,  were  only  rewarded  with  a  pension  in 
money. 

The  towns  and  castles  of  Scotland  being  thus  reduced, 
the  national  resistance  of  the  natives  was  confined  to  a 
petty  warfare,  which  small  bands  carried  on,  who  lurked 
among  the  mountains  and  morasses,  and  took  every  ad- 
vantage which  these  afforded  to  annoy  the  English  troops, 
and  cut  off  small  parties,  or  straggling  soldiers.  These 
were  called  Moss-troopers,  from  a  word  formerly  appro- 
priated to  the  freebooters  of  the  Border.  But  the  Eng- 
lish, who  observed  a  most  rigid  discipline,  were  not  much 
in  danger  of  suffering  from  such  desultory  efforts  ;  and  as 
they  seldom  spared  the  prisoners  taken  in  the  skirmishes, 
the  Scots  found  themselves  obliged  to  submit,  for  the  first 
time,  to  an  invader  more  fortunate  than  all  the  preceding 
sovereigns  of  England.  Their  resistance  ceased,  but 
their  hatred  watched  for  a  safer  opportunity  of  vengeance. 
The  Highlanders,  however,  being  strong  in  the  character 
of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants,  continued  refractory  to 
the  English  authority,  and  if  the  soldiery  ventured  to  go 
through  the  country  alone,  or  in  small  parties,  they  were 
sure  to  be  surprised  and  slain,  without  its  being  possible 
to  discover  the  actors.  The  English  officers  endeavoured 
to  obtain  from  the  neighbouring  chiefs,  who  pretended 
complete  ignorance  of  these  transactions,  such  redress  as 
the  case  admitted  of,  but  their  endeavours  were  in  general 
ingeniously  eluded. 

For  example,  an  English  garrison  had  lost  cattle,  horses, 
and  even  men,  by  the  incursion  of  a  Highland  clan  who 
had  their  residence  in  the  neighbouring  mountains,  so  that 
the  incensed  governor  demanded  peremptorily,  that  the 
actor-  jf  these  depredations  should  be  delivered  up  to 
aim  to  suffer  punishment.  The  Chief  was  in  no  condition 


THE    PROTECTORATE.  195 

to  resist,  but  was  not  the  less  unwilling  to  deliver  up  the 
men  actually  concerned  in  the  creagh,  who  were  probably 
the  boldest,  cr,  as  it  was  then  termed,  the  prettiest,  men 
of  his  name.  To  get  easily  out  of  the  dilemma,  he  if 
said  to  have  picked  up  two  or  three  old  creatures,  past  all 
exertion,  whom  he  sent  down  to  the  English  commandant, 
as  if  they  had  been  the  caterans  or  plunderers  whom  he 
wanted.  The  English  officer  caused  them  instantly  to  be 
hanged  in  tetrorem,  which  was  done  accordingly,  no  pro- 
testations which  they  might  have  made  of  their  innocence 
being  understood  or  attended  to.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
other  refractory  chiefs  found  more  justifiable  means  of 
preserving  their  authority. 

In  the  meantime,  Oliver  Cromwell  accomplished  an 
extraordinary  revolution  in  England,  which  I  can  here  but 
barely  touch  upon.  He  and  his  Council  of  Officers,  who 
had  so  often  offered  violence  to  the  Parliament,  by  ex- 
cluding from  the  sittings  such  members  as  were  obnoxious 
to  them,  now  resolved  altogether  to  destroy  the  very 
remnant  of  its  existence.  For  this  purpose  Cromwell 
came  to  the  House  while  it  was  sitting,  told  them,  in  a 
violent  manner,  that  they  were  no  longer  a  Parliament, 
and  upbraiding  several  individuals  with  injurious  names, 
he  called  in  a  body  of  soldiers,  and  commanded  one  ot 
them  to  "  take  away  that  bauble,"  meaning  the  silver 
mace,  which  is  an  emblem  of  the  authority  of  the  House. 
Then  turning  the  members  forcibly  out  of  the  hall,  he 
locked  the  doors,  and  thus  dissolved  that  memorable  body, 
which  had  made  war  against  the  King,  defeated,  dethron- 
ed, and  beheaded  him,  yet  sunk  at  once  under  the  author- 
'ty  of  one  of  their  own  members,  and  an  officer  of  their 
own  naming,  who  had,  in  the  beginning  of  these  struggles, 
been  regarded  as  a  man  of  very  mean  consideration. 
Oliver  Cromwell  now  seized  the  supreme  power  into  his 
hands,  with  the  title  of  Protector  of  the  Republics  ot 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  under  which  he  governed  these 
islands  till  his  death,  with  authority  more  ample  than  was 
ever  possessed  by  an}  )f  their  lawful  monarchs. 


196  GLENCAIUN'S  RISING. 

The  confusion  which  the  usurpation  of  Cromwell  wa? 
expected  to  have  occasioned  in  England,  determined  thf 
Royalists  to  attempt  a  general  rising,  in  which  it  was  ex 
peeled  that  great  part  of  the  Highland  chieftains  would 
join.  The  successes  of  Montrose  were  remembered,  al- 
though it  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  that  it  was  more 
his  own  genius,  than  his  means,  that  enabled  him  to  attain 
them.  The  Earl  of  Glencairn  was  placed  by  the  King's 
commission  at  the  head  of  the  insurrection  ;  he  was  joined 
by  the  Earl  of  Athole,  by  the  son  of  the  heroic  Montrose, 
by  Lord  Lorn,  the  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  and 
other  nobles.  A  romantic  young  English  cavalier,  named 
Wogan,  joined  this  insurgent  army  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  eighty  horse,  whom  he  brought  by  a  toilsome  and  dan- 
gerous march  through  England  and  the  Low  Countries 
of  Scotland.  This  gallant  troop  was  frequently  engaged 
with  the  Republican  forces,  and  particularly  with  a  horse 
regiment,  called  "  the  Brazen  Wall,"  from  their  never 
having  been  broken.  Wogan  defeated,  however,  a  party 
of  these  invincibles,  but  received  several  wounds,  which, 
though  not  of  themselves  mortal,  became  so  for  want  of 
good  surgeons  ;  and  thus,  in  an  obscure  skirmish,  enaed 
the  singular  career  of  an  enthusiastic  Royalist. 

The  army  under  Glencairn  increased  to  five  thousand 
men,  numbers  much  greater  than  Montrose  usually  com- 
manded. Their  commander,  however,  though  a  brave 
and  accomplished  nobleman,  seems  to  have  been  deficient 
in  military  skill,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  the  art  of  securing  the 
good-will  and  obedience  of  the  various  chiefs  and  nobles 
who  acted  under  him.  It  was  in  vain  that  Charles,  to 
reconcile  their  feuds,  sent  over,  as  their  comrnander-in- 
chief,  General  Middleton,  who,  after  having  fought  against 
Montrose  in  the  cause  of  the  Covenant,  had  at  length  be' 
come  an  entire  Royalist,  and  was  trusted  as  such.  But 
his  military  talents  were  not  adequate  to  surmount  the  ob- 
icctions  which  were  made  to  his  obscure  origin,  and  the 
difficulties  annexed  to  his  situation. 

General  Middleton  had  but  an  indifferent  welcome  to 
die  Highland  army,  by  the  following  scene  which  took 


GLUNCAIUN'S  RISING.  197 

place  at  an  entertainment  given  by  him  on  taking  the  com- 
mand. Glencairn  bad  spoken  something  in  praise  of  the 
men  he  had  assembled  for  the  King's  service,  especially 
the  Highlanders.  In  reply,  up  started  Sir  George  Munro 
who,  having  been  trained  in  the  wars  of  Germany,  ae- 
spised  all  irregular  troops,  and  flatly  swore  that  the  men 
of  whom  the  Earl  thus  boasted,  were  a  pack  of  thieves 
and  robbers,  whose  place  he  hoped  to  supply  with  very 
different  soldiers.  Glengary,  a  Highland  chief,  who  was 
present,  arose  to  resent  this  insolent  language  ;  but  Glen- 
cairn,  preventing  him,  replied  to  Munro,  "  You  are  a  base 
liar  ! — these  men  are  neither  thieves  nor  robbers,  but  gal- 
lant gentlemen,  and  brave  soldiers." 

In  spite  of  Middleton's  attempts  to  preserve  peace,  this 
altercation  led  to  a  duel.  They  fought  on  horseback, 
first  with  pistols,  and  then  with  broadswords.  Sir  George 
Munro,  having  received  a  wound  on  the  bridle-hand,  called 
to  the  Earl  that  he  was  unable  to  command  his  horse,  and 
therefore  desired  to  continue  the  contest  on  foot.  '<  You 
base  churl,"  answered  Glencairn,  "  I  will  match  you  on 
foot  or  on  horseback."  Both  dismounted,  and  encoun- 
tered fiercely  on  foot,  with  their  broadswords,  when  Munro 
received  a  wound  across  his  forehead,  from  which  the 
blood  flowed  so  fast  into  his  eyes,  that  he  could  not  see 
to  continue  the  combat.  Glencairn  was  about  to  thrust 
his  enemy  through  the  body,  when  the  Earl's  servant 
struck  up  the  point  of  his  master's  sword,  saying,  "  You 
have  enough  of  him,  my  lord — you  have  gained  the  day." 
Glencairn,  still  in  great  anger,  struck  the  intrusive  peace- 
maker over  the  shoulders,  but  returned  to  his  quarters, 
where  he  was  shortly  after  laid  under  arrest,  by  order  oi 
the  General. 

Ere  this  quarrel  was  composed,  one  Captain  Living' 
stone,  a  friend  of  Munro,  debated  the  justice  of  the  ques- 
tion so  keenly  with  a  gentleman,  named  Lindsay,  that 
they  must  needs  fight  a  duel  also,  in  which  Lindsay  killed 
Livingstone  on  the  spot.  General  Middleton,  in  spite  ol 
Glencairn's  intercessions,  ordered  Lindsay  to  be  executed 


198  EXPLOITS    OF    EVAN    DHL', 

by  martial  law,  on  which  Glencairn  left  he  army  with  hi* 
own  immediate  followers,  and  soon  afte/  returning  to  the 
Lowlands,  made  peace  with  the  English.  His  example 
was  followed  by  most  of  the  Lowland  nobles,  who  grew 
impatient  of  long  marches,  Highland  quarters,  and  obscure 
skirmishes,  which  were  followed  by  no  important  result. 

Middleton  still  endeavoured  to  keep  the  war  alive,  al- 
though Cromwell  had  sent  additional  forces  into  the  High- 
lands. At  length  he  sustained  a  defeat  at  Loch-Gary, 
26th  July,  1654,  after  which  his  army  dispersed,  and  he 
himself  retired  abroad.  The  English  forces  then  inarch- 
ed through  the  Highlands,  and  compelled  the  principal 
clans  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  Protector.  And 
here  I  may  give  you  an  account  of  one  individual  chief- 
tain, of  great  celebrity  at  that  time,  since  you  will  learn 
better  the  character  of  that  primitive  race  of  men  from 
personal  anecdotes,  than  from  details  of  obscure  nnd  petty 
contests,  fought  at  places  with  unpronounceable  names. 

Eyan  Cameron  of  Lochiel,  chief  of  the  numerous  and 
powerful  clan  of  Cameron,  was  born  in  1 629.  He  was 
called  MacConnuill  Dim,  (the  son  of  Black  Donald,) 
from  the  patronymic  that  marked  his  descent,  and  Evan 
Dhu,  or  Black  Evan,  a  personal  epithet  derived  from  his 
own  complexion.  Young  Lochiel  was  bred  up  under  the 
directions  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  and  was  in  attend- 
ance on  that  nobleman,  who  regarded  him  as  a  hostage 
for  the  peaceable  behaviour  of  his  clan.  It  is  said,  that 
in  the  civil  war  the  young  chief  was  converted  to  the  side 
of  the  King  by  the  exhortations  of  Sir  Robert  Spottis- 
wood,  then  in  prison  at  St.  Andrews,  and  shortly  after- 
wards executed,  as  we  have  elsewhere  noticed,  for  his 
adherence  to  Montrose. 

Evan  Dhu,  having  embraced  these  principles,  was  one 
of  the  first  to  join  in  the  insurrection  of  1652,  of  which 
1  have  just  given  a  short  account.  During  the  best  parl 
of  two  years  he  was  always  with  his  clan,  in  the  very  front 
of  battle,  and  behaved  gallantly  in  the  various  skirmishes 
which  took  place.  He  was  compelled,  however,  on  one 
occav<on,  to  withdraw  from  the  main  body,  from  learning 


CHIEF    OF    THE    CAMERONS.  '99 

that  the  English  were  approaching  Lochaber,  with  the 
purpose  of  laying  waste  the  country  of  Lochiel.  He 
hastened  thither  to  protect  his  own  possessions,  and  those 
of  his  clan. 

On  returning  to  his  estates,  Lochiel  had  the  mortifica- 
tion to  find  that  the  English  had  established  a  garrison  at 
Inverlochy,  with  the  purpose  of  reducing  to  submission 
the  Royalist  clans  in  the  neighbourhood,  particularly  his 
own,  and  the  MacDonalds  of  Glengary  and  Keppoch. 
He  resolved  to  keep  a  strict  watch  on  their  proceedings, 
and,  dismissing  the  rest  of  his  followers,  whom  he  had  not 
means  of  maintaining  without  attracting  attention  to  his 
motions,  he  lay  in  the  woods  with  about  fifty  chosen  men, 
within  a  few  miles  of  Inverlochy. 

It  was  the  constant  policy  of  Cromwell  and  his  officers, 
both  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  to  cut  down  and  destroy 
the  torests  in  which  the  insurgent  natives  found  places  o( 
defence  and  concealment.  In  conformity  with  this  gen- 
eral rule,  the  commandant  of  Inverlochy  embarked  three 
hundred  men  in  two  light-armed  vessels,  with  directions 
to  disembark  at  a  place  called  Achdalew,  for  the  purpose 
of  destroying  Lochiel's  cattle  and  felling  his  woods.  Lo- 
chiel, who  watched  their  motions  closely,  saw  the  English 
soldiers  come  ashore,  one-half  having  hatchets  and  other 
tools  as  a  working  party,  the  other  half  under  arms,  to 
protect  their  operations.  Though  the  difference  of  num- 
bers was  so  great,  the  chieftain  vowed  that  he  would  make 
the  red  soldier  (so  the  English  were  called  from  their  uni- 
form) pay  dear  for  every  bullock  or  tree  which  he  should 
destroy  on  the  black  soldier's  property,  (alluding  to  the 
dark  colour  of  the  tartan,  and  perhaps  to  his  own  com- 
plexion.) He  then  demanded  of  some  of  his  followers, 
who  had  served  under  Montrose,  whether  they  had  ever 
seen  the  Great  Marquis  encounter  with  such  unequal 
numbers.  They  answered,  they  could  rec  jllect  no  in- 
stance of  such  temerity.  "  We  will  fight,  nevertheless." 
said  Evan  Dhu,  "  and  if  each  of  us  kill  a  man,  which  is 
no  mighty  matter,  I  will  answer  for  the  event."  That  his 
family  might  not  be  destroyed  in  so  doubtful  an  enterprise* 


-^00  EXPLOITS    OF    EVAN    Dill, 

lie  ordered  his  brother  Allan  to  be  bound  to  a  tree,  mean- 
ing to  prevent  his  interference  in  the  conflict.  But  Allan 
prevailed  on  a  little  boy,  who  was  left  to  attend  him,  to 
unloose  the  cords,  and  was  soon  as  deep  in  the  fight  as 
Evan  himself. 

The  Camerons,  concealed  by  the  trees,  advanced  so 
close  on  the  enemy  as  to  pour  on  them  an  unexpected  and 
destructive  shower  of  shot  and  arrows,  which  slew  thirty 
men  ;  and  ere  they  could  recover  themselves  from  their 
surprise,  the  Highlanders  were  in  the  midst  of  them,  lay- 
ing about  them  with  incredible  fury  with  their  ponderous 
swords  and  axes.  After  a  gallant  resistance,  the  mass  of 
the  English  began  to  retire  towards  their  vessels,  when 
Evan  Dhu  commanded  a  piper  and  a  small  party  to  go 
betwixt  the  enemy  and  their  barks,  and  there  sound  his 
pibroch  and  war-cry,  till  their  clamour  made  it  seem  there 
was  another  body  of  Highlanders  in  ambush  to  cut  ofl 
their  retreat.  The  English,  driven  to  fury  and  despair 
by  this  new  alarm,  turned  back,  like  brave  men,  upon  the 
first  assailants,  and,  if  the  working  party  had  possessed 
military  weapons,  Lochiel  might  have  had  little  reason  to 
congratulate  himself  on  the  result  of  this  audacious  strat- 
agem. 

He  himself  had  a  personal  rencontre,  strongly  charac- 
teristic of  the  ferocity  of  the  times.  The  chief  was  sin- 
gled out  by  an  English  officer  of  great  personal  strength, 
and,  as  they  were  separated  from  the  general  strife,  they 
fought  in  single  combat  for  some  time.  Lochiel  was  dex- 
terous enough  to  disarm  the  Englishman  ;  but  his  gigantic 
adversary  suddenly  closed  on  him,  and  in  the  struggle 
which  ensued  both  fell  to  the  ground,  the  officer  upper- 
most. He  was  in  the  act  of  grasping  at  his  sword,  which 
lay  near  the  place  where  they  lay  in  deadly  struggle,  and 
was  naturally  extending  his  neck  in  the  same  direction, 
when  the  Highland  chief,  making  a  desperate  effort,  grasp- 
ed his  enemy  by  the  collar,  and  snatching  with  his  teeth 
at  the  bare  and  out-stretched  throat,  he  seized  it  as  a 
wi]d-  rat  might  have  done,  and  kept  his  hold  so  fast  as  to 
tear  out  the  windpipe.  The  officer  died  in  this  singular 


CHIEF    OF    THE    CAMERONS.  201 

manner.  Lochiel  was  so  far  from  disowning,  or  being 
ashamed  of  this  extraordinary  mode  of  defence,  that  he 
was  afterwards  heard  to  say,  it  was  the  sweetest  morsel 
he  had  ever  tasted. 

When  Lochiel,  thus  extricated  from  the  most  imminent 
danger,  was  able  to  rejoin  his  men,  he  found  they  had  not 
only  pursued  the  English  to  the  beach,  but  even  into  the 
sea,  cutting  and  stabbing  whomsoever  they  could  overtake. 
He  himself  advanced  till  he  was  chin-deep,  and  observing 
a  man  on  board  one  of  the  armed  vessels  take  aim  at 
him  with  a  musket,  he  dived  his  head  under  the  water, 
escaping  so  narrowly  that  the  bullet  grazed  his  head. 
Another  marksman  was  foiled  by  the  affection  of  the 
chiefs  foster  brother,  who  threw  himself  betwixt  the  Eng- 
lishman and  the  object  of  his  aim,  and  was  killed  by  the 
ball  designed  for  his  lord. 

Having  cut  off  a  second  party,  who  ventured  to  sally 
from  the  fort,  and  thus,  as  he  thought,  sufficiently  chastised 
the  garrison  of  Inverlochy,  Lochiel  again  joined  Middle- 
ton,  but  was  soon  recalled  to  Lochaber  by  new  acts  of  de- 
vastation. Leaving  most  of  his  men  with  the  Royalist 
General,  Evan  Dhu  returned  with  such  speed  and  secrecy, 
that  he  again  surprised  a  strong  party  when  in  the  act  oi 
felling  his  woods,  and  assaulting  them  suddenly,  killed  on 
the  spot  a  hundred  men,  and  all  the  officers,  driving  the 
rest  up  to  the  very  walls  of  the  garrison. 

Middleton's  army  being  disbanded,  it  was  long  ere  Lo- 
chiel could  bring  himself  to  accept  of  peace  from  the 
hands  of  the  English.  He  continued  to  harass  them  by 
attacks  on  detached  parties  who  straggled  from  the  fort, 
— on  the  officers  who  went  out  into  the  woods  in  hunting- 
parties, — on  the  engineer  officers,  who  were  sent  to  survey 
the  Highlands,  of  whom  he  made  a  large  party  prisoners, 
and  confined  them  in  a  desolate  island,  on  a  small  lake 
called  Loch  Ortuigg.  By  such  exploits  he  rendered  him- 
self so  troublesome,  that  the  English  were  desirous  to 
hove  peace  with  him  on  any  moderate  terms.  Their  over- 
tures were  at  first  rejected,  Evan  Dhu  returning  for  answer, 
lhat  he  would  not  abjure  the  King's  authority  even  though 
9 


EXPLOITS    OF    EVAN    DHU. 

the  alternative  was  to  be  his  living  in  the  condition  of  an 
exile  and  outlaw.  But  when  it  was  hinted  to  him  that 
this  would  not  be  required,  but  that  he  was  only  desired 
to  live  in  peace  under  the  existing  government,  he  made 
his  submission  to  the  existing  powers  with  much  solemnity . 

Lochiel  came  down  at  the  head  oi"  his  whole  clan  in 
arms,  to  the  garrison  of  Inverlochy.  The  English  forces 
being  drawn  up  in  a  line  opposite  to  them,  the  Camerons 
laid  down  their  arms  in  the  name  of  King  Charles,  and 
took  them  up  again  in  that  of  the  States,  without  any  men- 
tion of  Cromwell.  In  consequence  of  this  honourable 
treaty,  the  last  Scotsman  who  maintained  the  cause  ot 
Charles  Stewart  submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  republic. 

It  is  related  of  this  remarkable  chieftain,  that  he  slew 
with  his  own  hand  the  last  wolf  that  was  ever  seen  in  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland.  Another  anecdote  is  recorded  01 
him  by  tradition.  Being  benighted,  on  some  party  for  the 
battle  or  the  chase,  Evan  Dhu  laid  himself  down  with  his 
followers  to  sleep  in  the  snow.  As  he  composed  himsell 
10  rest,  he  observed  that  one  of  his  sons,  or  nephews,  had 
rolled  together  a  great  snow-ball,  on  which  he  deposited 
his  head.  Indignant  at  what  he  considered  as  a  mark  oi 
effeminacy,  he  started  up  and  kicked  the  snow-ball  from 
under  the  sleeper's  head,  exclaiming, — "  Are  you  become 
so  luxurious  that  you  cannot  sleep  without  a  pillow  ?" 

After  the  accession  of  James  II.,  Lochiel  came  to  court 
to  obtain  pardon  for  one  of  his  clan,  who  fired  by  mistake 
on  a  body  of  Athole  men,  and  killed  several.  He  was 
received  with  the  most  honourable  distinction,  and  his  re- 
quest granted.  The  King  desiring  to  make  him  a  knight, 
asked  of  the  chieftain  for  his  own  sword,  in  order  to  render 
the  ceremony  still  more  peculiar.  Lochiel  had  ridden  up 
from  Scotland,  being  then  the  only  mode  of  travelling, 
and  a  constant  rain  had  so  rusted  his  trusty  broadsword; 
that  at  the  moment  no  man  could  have  unsheathed  it. 
Lochiel,  affronted  at  the  idea  which  the  courtiers  might 
conceive  from  his  not  being  able  to  draw  his  own  sword, 
burs;  into  tears. 


ADMINISTRATION    OF    JUSTICE.  203 

"  Do  not  regard  it,  my  faithful  friend,"  said  King 
James,  with  ready  courtesy — "  your  sword  would  have 
left  the  scabbard  of  itself,  had  the  Royal  cause  required  it." 

With  that  he  bestowed  the  intended  honour  with  his 
own  sword,  which  he  presented  to  the  new  knight  as  soon 
as  the  ceremony  was  performed. 

Sir  Evan  Dhu  supported,  for  the  last  time,  the  cause  of 
the  Stewart  family  in  the  battle  of  Killiecrankie.  After 
that  civil  strife  was  ended,  he  grew  old  in  peace,  and  sur- 
vived until  17 19,  aged  about  ninety,  and  so  much  deprived 
of  his  strength  and  faculties,  that  this  once  formidable 
warrior  was  fed  like  an  infant,  and  like  an  infant  rocked 
in  a  cradle. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Administration   of  Public  Justice  in   Scotland,  under 
Cromwell — Heavy   Taxes  imposed  by  him — Church 
Affairs — Resolutionists    and   Remonstrators — Trials 
for  Witchcraft. 

WE  will  now  take  a  general  glance  of  Scotland,  reduced 
as  the  country  was  to  temporary  submission  under  Crom- 
well, whose  power  there  and  elsewhere  was  founded  upon 
military  usurpation  only.  He  built  strong  citadels  at  Leith, 
Ayr,  Inverness,  and  Glasgow.  Eighteen  garrisons  were 
maintained  through  the  kingdom  at  large,  and  a  standing 
army  often  thousand  men  kept  the  natives  in  subjection. 
Mon,k,  so  often  mentioned,  commanded  this  army,  and 
was,  besides,  member  of  a  Council  of  State,  to  whom  the 
executive  government  was  committed.  Lord  Broghill 
was  President  of  this  body,  and  out  of  nine  members,  two 
only,  Swinton  and  Lockhart,  were  natives  of  Scotland, 

To  regulate  the  administration  of  public  justice,  four 
English,  and  three  Scottish  judges,  were  appointed  to 
hear  causes,  and  to  make  circuits  for  that  purpose.  The 
English  judges,  it  may  be  supposed,  were  indifferent  law- 


204  HEAVY    TAXES. 

yers ;  but  they  distributed  justice  with  an  impartiality,  to 
which  the  Scottish  nation  had  been  entirely  a  stranger, 
and  which  ceased  to  he  experienced  when  the  native 
judges  were  again  restored  after  the  Restoration.  The 
peculiar  rectitude  of  the  men  employed  by  Cromwell  being 
pointed  out  to  a  learned  judge,  in  the  beginning  of  the  next 
century,  his  lordship  composedly  answered,  "  Devil  thank 
them  for  their  impartiality  !  a  pack  of  kinless  loons — for 
my  part,  I  can  never  see  a  cousin  or  friend  in  the  wrong." 

This  shameful  partiality  in  the  Scottish  courts  of  justice 
revived,  as  just  .noticed,  with  the  Restoration,  when  the 
judges  were  to  be  gained,  not  only  by  the  solicitation  of 
private  friends,  and  by  the  influence  of  kinsfolks,  but  by 
the  interference  of  persons  in  power,  and  the  application 
of  downright  bribery. 

In  point  of  taxation,  Oliver  Cromwell's  Scottish  gov- 
ernment was  intolerably  oppressive,  since  he  appears  to 
have  screwed  out  of  that  miserable  country  an  assessment 
of  £10,000  per  month,  which,  even  when  gradually  di- 
minished to  72,000  pounds  yearly,  was  paid  with  the 
utmost  difficulty.  Some  alleviation  was  indeed  introduced 
by  the  circulation  of  the  money  with  which  England  paid 
her  soldiers  and  civil  establishment,  which  was  at  one  time 
calculated  at  half  a  million  yearly,  and  was  never  beneath 
the  moiety  of  that  sum. 

With  regard  to  the  church,  Cromwell  prudently  fore- 
saw, that  the  consequence  of  the  preachers  would  gradu- 
ally diminish  if  they  were  permitted  to  abuse  each  other, 
but  prevented  from  stirring  up  their  congregations  to  arms. 
They  continued  to  be  rent  asunder  by  the  recent  discord, 
which  had  followed  upon  the  King's  death.  The  majority 
were  Resolutionists,  who  owned  the  King's  title,  and  would 
not  be  prohibited  from  praying  for  him  at  any  risk.  Tiie 
Remonstrants,  who  had  never  been  able  to  see  any  suffi- 
cient reason  for  embracing  the  cause,  or  acknowledging 
the  title,  of  Charles  the  Second,  yielded  obedience  to  the 
English  government,  and  disowned  all  notice  of  the  King 
in  their  public  devotions.  The  Independents  treated  both 


CHURCH    AFFAIRS.  205 

with  cr  niemptuous  indifference,  and  only  imposed  on  them 
the  necf  ssity  of  observing  toleration  towards  each  ether. 

But  trough  divided  into  different  classes,  Presbyterian- 
ism  continued  on  the  whole  predominant.  The  temper 
of  the  Scottish  nation  seemed  altogether  indisposed  to 
receive  any  of  the  various  sects  which  had  proved  so 
prolific  in  England.  The  quiet  and  harmless  Quakers 
were  the  only  sectaries  who  gained  some  proselytes  of 
distinction.  Independents  of  other  denominations  made 
small  progress,  owing  to  the  vigilance  with  which  the 
Presbyterian  clergy  maintained  the  unity  of  the  Church. 
Even  Cromwell  was  compelled  to  show  deference  to  the 
prevailing  opinions.  He  named  a  commission  of  about 
thirty  ministers  from  the  class  of  Remonstrators,  and  de- 
clared that  without  certificates  from  three  or  four  of  these 
select  persons,  no  minister,  though  he  might  be  called  to 
a  church,  should  enjoy  a  stipend.  This  put  the  keys  of 
the  Church  (so  far  as  emolument  was  concerned)  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  the  Presbyterians  ;  and  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed, that  such  of  the  Commissioners  as  acted  (for  many 
declined  the  office,  thinking  the  duties  of  the  Ecclesias- 
tical Commission  too  much  resembled  Episcopacy)  took 
care  to  admit  no  minister  whose  opinions  did  not  coincide 
with  their  own.  The  sectaries  who  were  concerned  in 
civil  affairs,  were  also  thwarted  and  contemned  ;  and  on 
the  whole,  in  spite  of  the  victories  of  the  Independents 
in  the  field,  their  doctrines  made  little  progress  in  Scot- 
land. 

During  the  four  years  which  ensued  betwixt  the  final 
cessation  of  the  Civil  War,  by  the  dispersion  of  the  roy- 
alist army,  and  the  Restoration  of  Monarchy,  there  oc- 
curred no  public  event  worthy  of  notice.  The  spirit  of 
the  country  was  depressed  and  broken.  The  nobles,  who 
hitherto  had  yielded  but  imperfect  obedience  to  their  na- 
tive monarchs,  were  now  compelled  to  crouch  under  the 
rod  of  an  English  usurper.  Most  of  them  retired  to  their 
country  seats,  or  castles,  and  lived  in  obscurity,  enjoying 
such  limited  dominion  over  their  vassaJs  as  the  neighbour 


206  TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT. 

hood  of  the  English  garrisons  permitted  them  to  retain 
These,  of  course,  prevented  all  calling  of  the  people  to 
arms,  and  exercise  of  the  privilege,  on  the  part  of  the 
barons,  of  making  open  war  on  each  other. 

Thus  far  the  subjection  of  the  country  was  of  advan- 
tage to  the  tenantry  and  lower  classes,  who  enjoyed  more 
peace  and  tranquillity  than  had  been  their  lot  during  the 
civil  wars.  But  the  weight  of  oppressive  taxes,  collected 
by  means  of  a  foreign  soldiery,  and  the  general  sense  of 
degradation,  arising  from  their  subjugation  to  a  foreign 
power,  counterbalanced  for  the  time  the  diminution  ol 
feudal  oppression. 

In  the  absence  of  other  matter,  I  may  here  mention  a 
subject  which  is  interesting,  as  peculiarly  characteristic  of 
the  manners  of  Scotland.  I  mean  the  frequent  recurrence 
of  prosecutions  for  witchcraft,  which  distinguishes  this 
period. 

Scripture  refers  more  than  once  to  the  existence  of 
witches  ;  and  though  divines  have  doubted  concerning 
their  nature  and  character,  yet  most  European  nations  have 
retained  in  their  statutes,  laws  founded  upon  the  text  of 
Exodus,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  The 
Reformers,  although  rejecting  the  miracles  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  retained  with  tenacity  the  belief  of  the  ex- 
istence of  such  sorceresses,  and  zealously  enforced  the 
penalties  against  all  unfortunate  creatures  whom  they  be- 
lieved to  fall  under  the  description  of  witches,  wizards, 
or  the  like.  The  increase  of  general  information  and 
common  sense,  has,  at  a  later  period,  occasioned  the  an- 
nulling of  those  cruel  laws  in  most  countries  of  Europe. 
It  has  been  judiciously  thought,  that,  since  the  Almighty 
has  ceased  to  manifest  his  own  power  by  direct  and  mi- 
raculous suspension  of  the  ordinary  laws  of  nature,  it  is 
inconsistent  to  suppose  that  evil  spirits  should  be  left  at 
liberty  to  form  a  league  with  wretched  mortals,  and  impart 
to  them  supernatural  powers  of  injuring  or  tormenting 
others.  And  the  truth  of  this  reasoning  has  been  proved 
by  the  general  fact,  that  where  the  laws  against  witch- 


TRIALS   FOR  WITCHCRAFT.  207 

craft  have  been  abolished,  witches  are  rarely  heard  of 
or  thought  of,  even  amongst  the  lowest  vulgar. 

But  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  belief  in  this  im- 
aginary crime  was  general,  and  the  prosecutions,  espe- 
cially in  Scotland,  were  very  frequent.  James  VI.,  who 
often  turned  the  learning  he  had  acquired  to  a  very  idle 
use,  was  at  the  trouble  to  write  a  treatise  against  witch- 
craft, as  he  composed  another  against  smoking  tobacco  ; 
and  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  however  little  apt  to  coincide 
with  that  Monarch's  sentiments,  gave  full  acceptation  to  his 
opinion  on  the  first  point  of  doctrine,  and  very  many  per- 
sons were  put  to  death  as  guilty  of  this  imaginary  crime 

I  must,  however,  observe,  that  some  of  those  executed 
for  witchcraft  well  deserved  their  fate.  Impostors  of  both 
sexes  were  found,  who  deluded  credulous  persons,  by 
pretending  an  intercourse  with  supernatural  powers,  and 
furnished  those  who  consulted  them  with  potions,  for  the 
purpose  of  revenging  themselves  on  their  enemies,  which 
were  in  fact  poisonous  compounds,  sure  to  prove  fatal  to 
those  who  partook  of  them.  Among  many  other  instances, 
I  may  mention  that  of  a  lady  of  high  rank,  the  second 
wife  of  a  northern  earl,  who,  being  desirous  of  destroy- 
ing her  husband's  eldest  son  by  the  former  marriage,  in 
order  that  her  own  son  might  succeed  to  the  lather's  title 
and  estates,  procured  drugs  to  effect  her  purpose  from  a 
Highland  woman,  who  pretended  to  be  a  witch  or  sorcer- 
ess. The  fatal  ingredients  were  mixed  with  ale,  and  set 
aside  by  the  wicked  countess,  to  be  given  to  her  victim  on 
the  first  fitting  opportunity.  But  Heaven  disappointed  her 
purpose,  and,  at  the  same  time,  inflicted  on  her  a  dreadful 
punishment.  Her  own  son,  for  whose  advantage  she  med- 
itated this  horrible  crime,  returning  fatigued  and  thirsty 
from  hunting,  lighted  by  chance  on  this  fetal  cup  of  liquor, 
drank  it  without  hesitation,  and  died  in  consequence. 

The  wretched  mixer  of  the  poison  was  tried  and  exe- 
cuted;  but,  although  n  one  could  be  sony  thatthoa£.€ii> 
in  such  a  deed  was  brought  to  pur-rrn  ent,  i^is  clea  sh* 
deserved  death,  not  as  a  witch,  bu:  as  one  who  was  an 
accomplice  in  murder  by  poison. 


208  TEIALS   FOR  WITCHCRAFT. 

But  most  of  the  poor  creatures  who  suffered  death  for 
witchcraft  were  aged  persons,  women  in  general,  living 
alone,  in  a  poor  and  miserable  condition,  and  disposed, 
from  the  peevishness  of  age  and  infirmity,  to  rail  against 
or  desire  evil,  in  their  froward  humour,  to  i.oighbours  by 
whom  they  were  abused  or  slighted.  When  such  had 
unwittingly  given  vent  to  impotent  anger  in  bad  wishes  or 
imprecations,  if  a  child  fell  sick,  a  horse  became  lame,  a 
bullock  died,  or  any  other  misfortune  chanced  in  the  fam- 
ily against  which  the  ill-will  had  been  expressed,  it  sub- 
jected the  utterer  instantly  to  the  charge  of  witchcraft, 
and  was  received  by  judges  and  jury  as  a  strong  proof 
of  guilt.  If,  in  addition  to  this,  the  miserable  creature 
had,  by  the  oddity  of  her  manners,  the  crossness  of  her 
temper,  the  habit  of  speaking  to  herself,  or  any  other  signs 
of  the  dotage  which  attends  comfortless  old  age  and  pov- 
erty, attracted  the  suspicions  of  her  credulous  neighbours, 
she  was  then  said  to  have  been  held  and  reputed  a  witch, 
and  was  rarely  permitted  to  escape  the  stake. 

It  was  equally  fatal  for  an  aged  person  of  the  lower 
ranks  if,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  she  conceived  her- 
self to  possess  any  peculiar  receipt  or  charm  for  curing 
diseases,  either  by  the  application  of  medicines,  of  which 
she  had  acquired  the  secret,  or  by  repeating  words,  01 
using  spells  and  charms,  which  the  superstition  of  the 
time  supposed  to  have  the  power  of  relieving  maladies 
that  were  beyond  the  skill  of  medical  practitioners. 

Such  a  person  was  held  a  white  witch  ;  one,  that  is, 
who  employed  her  skill  for  the  benefit,  not  the  harm,  oi 
her  fellow-creatures.  But  still  she  was  a  sorceress,  and, 
as  such,  was  liable  to  be  brought  to  the  stake.  Such  a 
doctress  was  equally  exposed  to  such  a  charge,  whether 
her  patient  died  or  recovered  ;  and  she  was,  according  to 
circumstances,  condemned  for  using  sorcery  to  cure  or  to 
kill.  Her  allegation  that  she  had  received  the  secret  from 
family  tradition,  or  from  any  other  source,  was  not  admit- 
ted as  a  defence  ;  and  she  was  doomed  to  death  with  as 
.'ittle  hesitation  for  having  attempted  to  cure  by  mysterious 
a.ud  unlawful  means,  as  if  she  had  been  charged,  as  in  the 


TRIALS    FOIl    WITCIICHAFT.  209 

instance   already   given,  with  having  assisted  to   co  nmit 
murder. 

The  following  example  of  such  a  case  is  worthy  ol 
notice.  It  rests  on  tradition,  hut  is  very  likely  to  he  true. 
An  eminent  English  judge  was  travelling  the  circuit,  when 
an  old  woman  was  hrought  heibre  him  for  using  a  spell  to 
cure  dimness  of  sight  by  hanging  a  clew  of  yarn  round 
the  neck  of  the  patient.  Marvellous  things  were  told  by 
the  witnesses,  of  the  cures  which  this  spell  had  perform- 
ed on  patients  far  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  medicine. 
The  poor  woman  made  no  other  defence  than  hy  protest- 
ing, that  if  there  was  any  witchcraft  in  the  ball  of  yarn, 
she  knew  nothing  of  it.  It  had  been  given  her,  she  said, 
thirty  years  before,  hy  a  young  Oxford  student,  for  the 
cure  of  one  of  her  own  family,  who  having  used  it  with 
advantage,  she  had  seen  no  harm  in  lending  it  for  the  re- 
lief of  others  who  laboured  under  similar  infirmity,  or  in 
accepting  a  small  gratuity  for  doing  so.  Her  defence  was 
little  attended  to  by  the  jury  ;  but  the  judge  was  much 
agitated.  He  asked  the  woman  where  she  resided  when 
she  obtained  possession  of  this  valuable  relic.  She  gave 
the  name  of  a  village,  in  winch  she  had  in  former  times 
kept  a  petty  alehouse.  He  then  looked  at  the  clew  very 
earnestly,  and  at  length  addressed  the  jury.  "  Gentle- 
men," he  said,  "  we  are  on  the  point  of  committing  a 
great  injustice  to  this  poor  old  woman  ;  and,  to  prevent 
it,  I  must  publicly  confess  a  piece  of  early  folly,  which 
does  me  no  honour.  At  the  time  this  poor  creature 
speaks  of,  I  was  at  college,  leading  an  idle  and  careless 
life,  which,  had  I  not  been  given  grace  to  correct  it,  must 
have  made  it  highly  improbable  that  ever  I  should  have 
attained  my  present  situation.  1  chanced  to  remain  for 
a  day  and  night  in  this  woman's  alehouse,  without  naving 
money  to  discharge  my  reckoning.  Not  knowing  what  to 
do,  ami  seeing  her  much  occupied  with  a  child  who  had 
weak  eyes,  1  had  the  meanness  to  pretend  that  I  could 
write  out  a  spell  lhat  would  mend  her  daughter's  sight,  if 
she  v^ould  accept  it  instead  of  her  bill.  The  ignorant 

893 


TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT. 

woman  readily  agreed  ;  and  I  scrawled  some  figures  on 
a  piece  of  parchment,  and  added  two  lines  of  nonsensi- 
cal doggrel,  in  ridicule  of  her  credulity,  and  caused  her 
to  make  it  up  in  that  clew  which  has  so  nearly  cost  her 
her  life.  To  prove  the  truth  of  it,  let  the  yarn  be  un- 
wound, and  you  may  judge  of  the  efficacy  of  the  spell." 
The  clew  was  unwound  accordingly  ;  and  this  pithy 
couplet  was  found  on  the  enclosed  bit  of  parchment — 

"  The  devil  scratch  out  both  thine  eyes, 
And  spit  into  the  holes  likewise." 

It  was  evident  that  those  who  were  cured  by  such  a 
spell,  must  have  been  indebted  to  nature,  with  some  as- 
sistance, perhaps,  from  imagination.  But  the  users  of 
such  charms  were  not  always  so  lucky  as  to  light  upon 
the  person  who  drew  them  up  ;  and  many  unfortunate 
creatures  were  executed,  as  the  poor  ale-wife  would  have 
been,  had  she  not  lighted  upon  her  former  customer  in  the 
character  of  her  judge. 

Another  old  woman  is  said  to  have  cured  many  cattle 
of  the  murrain,  by  a  repetition  of  a  certain  verse.  The 
fee  which  she  required,  was  a  loaf  of  bread  and  a  silver 
penny  ;  and  when  she  was  commanded  to  reveal  the  mag- 
ical verses  which  wrought  such  wonders,  they  were  found 
to  be  the  following  jest  on  the  credulity  of  her  custom- 


"  My  loaf  in  my  lap,  and  my  penny  in  my  purse, 
Thou  art  never  the  better,  and  I  never  the  worse." 

It  was  not  medicine  only  which  witchery  was  supposes 
to  mingle  with  ;  but  any  remarkable  degree  of  dexterity 
in  an  art  or  craft,  whether  attained  by  skill  or  industry, 
subjected  those  who  possessed  it  to  similar  suspicion. 
Thus  it  \vas  a  dangerous  thing  to  possess  more  thriving 
cows  than  those  of  the  neighbourhood,  though  their  su- 
periority was  attained  merely  by  paying  greater  attention 
lo  feeding  and  cleaning  the  animals.  It  was  often  an  ar- 
ticle of  suspicion,  that  a  woman  had  spun  considerably 
more  thread  than  her  less  industrious  neighbours  chose  to 


TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT.  21  J 

think  coulu  be  accomplished  by  ordinary  industry  ;  and 
to  crown  these  absurdities,  a  yeoman  of  the  town  of  Mai- 
ling, in  Kent,  was  accused  before  a  Justice  of  Peace  as 
a  sorcerer,  because  he  used  more  frequently  than  his 
companions  to  hit  the  mark  which  he  aimed  at.  This 
dexterity,  and  some  idle  story  of  the  archer's  amusing 
himself  with  letting  a  My  hum  and  buzz  around  him,  con- 
vinced the  judge,  that  the  poor  man's  skill  in  his  art  was 
owing  to  the  assistance  of  some  imp  of  Satan.  So  he 
punished  the  marksman  severely,  to  the  great  encourage- 
ment of  archery,  and  as  a  wise  example  to  all  Justices  ol 
the  Peace. 

Other  charges,  the  most  ridiculous  and  improbable, 
were  brought  against  those  suspected  of  witchcraft.  They 
were  supposed  to  have  power,  by  going  through  some 
absurd  and  impious  ceremony,  to  summon  to  their  pres- 
ence the  Author  of  Evil,  who  appeared  in  some  mean  or 
absurd  shape,  and,  in  return  for  their  renouncing  their 
redemption,  gave  them  the  power  of  avenging  themselves 
on  their  enemies  ;  which  privilege,  with  that  of  injuring 
and  teazing  their  fellow  creatures,  was  almost  all  they 
gained  from  their  new  master.  Sometimes,  indeed,  they 
obtained  from  him  the  power  of  flying  through  the  air  on 
broom-sticks,  when  the  Foul  Fiend  gave  public  parties  ; 
and  the  accounts  given  of  the  ceremonies  practised  on  such 
occasions  are  equally  disgusting  and  vulgar,  totally  foreign 
to  any  idea  we  can  have  of  a  spiritual  nature,  and  only  fit 
to  Jje  invented  and  believed  by  the  most  ignorant  and  bru- 
tal of  the  human  species. 

Another  of  these  absurdities  was,  the  belief  tljat  the 
evil  spiiits  would  attend  if  they  were  invoked  with  certain 
profane  ceremonies,  such  as  reading  the  Lord's  Prayer 
backwards,  or  the  like  ;  and  would  then  tell  the  future 
fortunes  of  those  who  had  raised  them,  as  it  was  called,  or 
inform  them  what  was  become  of  articles  which  had  been 
lost  or  stolen.  Stories  are  told  of  such  exploits  by  grave 
authors,  which  are  to  the  full  as  ridiculous,  and  more  so, 
than  anything  that  is  to  be  found  in  fairy  tales,  invented 
for  the  amusement  of  children.  And  for  all  this  incred- 


•<  TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT. 

il»!e  nonsense,  unfortunate  creatures  were  imprisoned 
tortured,  and  finally  burnt  alive,  by  the  sentence  of  their 
judges. 

li  is  strange  to  find,  that  the  persons  accused  of  this 
imaginary  crime  in  most  cases  paved  the  way  for  their 
own  condemnation,  by  confessing  and  admitting  the  truth 
of  all  the  monstrous  absurdities  which  were  charged 
against  them  by  their  accusers.  This  may  surprise  you  j 
but  yet  it  can  be  accounted  for. 

Many  of  these  poor  creatures  were  crazy,  and  infirm 
in  mind  as  well  as  body  ;  and,  hearing  themselves  charged 
with  this  monstrous  enormity  by  those  whom  they  account- 
ed wise  and  learned,  became  half  persuaded  of  their  own 
guilt,  and  assented  to  all  the  nonsensical  questions  which 
were  put  to  them.  But  this  was  not  all.  Very  many 
made  these  confessions  under  the  influence  of  torture, 
which  was  applied  to  them  with  cruel  severity.  It  is  true, 
the  ordinary  courts  of  justice  in  Scotland  had  not  the 
power  of  examining  criminals  under  torture,  which  was 
reserved  for  the  Privy  Council.  But  this  was  a  slight 
protection  ;  for  witches  were  seldom  tried  before  the  or- 
dinary Criminal  Courts,  because  the  lawyers,  though  they 
could  not  deny  the  existence  of  a  crime  for  which  the 
law  had  laid  down  a  punishment,  yet  showed  a  degree  of 
incredibility  respecting  witchcraft,  which  was  supposed 
frequently  to  lead  to  the  escape  of  those  accused  of  this 
unpopular  crime,  when  in  the  management  of  profess- 
ional persons.  To  avoid  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  {lie 
Justiciary,  and  other  regular  criminal  jurisdictions,  the  trial 
of  witchcraft  in  the  provinces  was  usually  brought  before 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  Privy  Council.  These 
commissioners  were  commonly  country  gentlemen  and 
clergymen,  who,  from  ignorance  on  the  one  side,  misdi- 
rected learning  on  the  other,  and  bigotry  on  both,  were 
as  eager  in  the  prosecution  as  the  vulgar  could  desire. 
By  their  commission  they  had  the  power  of  torture,  and 
employed  it  unscrupulously,  usually  calling  in  to  their 
assistance  a  witch-finder  ;  a  fellow,  that  is,  who  made 
m  jney  by  preloading  to  have  a  peculiar  art  and  excellence 


TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT.  2!  3 

n  discovering  these  offenders,  and  who  sometimes  under- 
took to  rid  a  parish  or  township  of  witches  at  so  much  a- 
head,  as  if  they  had  been  foxes,  wild  cats,  or  other  ver- 
min. These  detestable  impostors  directed  the  process 
of  the  torture,  which  frequently  consisted  in  keeping  the 
aged  and  weary  beings  from  sleeping,  and  walking  them 
forcibly  up  and  down  their  prison,  whenever  they  began 
to  close  their  eyes,  and  in  running  needles  into  their  flesh, 
under  pretence  of  discovering  a  mark,  which  the  witch- 
finders  affirmed  the  devil  had  impressed  on  their  skin,  in 
token  that  they  were  his  property  and  subjects.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  wretched  creatures,  driven  mad  by  want  of 
sleep  and  pain,  confessed  anything  whatsoever  to  obtain  a 
moment's  relief,  though  they  were  afterwards  to  die  for  it. 

But,  besides  the  craziness  of  such  victims,  and  the 
torture  to  which  they  were  subjected,  shame  and  weari- 
ness of  life  were  often  a  cause  of  their  pleading  guilty  to 
accusations  in  themselves  absurd  and  impossible.  You 
must  consider,  that  the  persons  accused  of  witchcraft  were 
almost  always  held  guilty  by  the  public  and  by  their  neigh- 
bours, and  that  if  the  court  scrupled  to  condemn  them,  it 
was  a  common  thing  for  the  mob  to  take  the  execution 
into  their  own  hands,  and  duck  the  unhappy  wretches  to 
death,  or  otherwise  destroy  them.  The  fear  of  such  a 
fate  might  determine  many  of  the  accused,  even  though 
they  were  in  their  sound  mind,  and  unconstrained  by  bodily 
torture,  to  plead  guilty  at  once,  and  rather  lose  their 
wretched  life  by  the  sentence  of  the  law,  than  expose 
themselves  to  the  fury  of  the  multitude.  A  singular  story 
is  told  to  this  effect. 

An  old  woman  and  her  daughter  were  tried  as  witches, 
8t  Haddington.  The  principal  evidence  of  the  crime 
was,  that  though  miserably  poor,  the  two  had  contrived  to 
look  "  fresh  and  fair,"  during  the  progress  of  a  terrible 
famine,  which  reduced  even  the  better  classes  to  straits, 
and  brought  all  indigent  people  to  the  point  of  starving, 
nnd  all  the  while  these  two  women,  without  either  begging 
or  complaining,  lived  on  in  their  usual  way,  and  never 
seemed  to  suffer  by  the  general  calamity.  The  jury  were 


214  TRIALS    FOU    WITCIICKAFT. 

perfectly  satisfied  that  this  could  not  take  place  by  anj 
natural  means  ;  and,  as  the  accused  persons,  on  under- 
going the  discipline  of  one  Kincaid,  a  witch-finder,  readily 
admitted  all  that  was  asked  ahout  their  intercourse  with 
the  devil,  the  jury,  on  their  confession,  brought  them  in 
guilty  without  hesitation. 

The  King's  Advocate  for  the  time  (I  believe  Sir  George 
Mackenzie  is  named)  was  sceptical  on  the  subject  of 
witchcraft.  He  visited  the  women  in  private,  and  urged 
them  to  tell  the  real  truth.  They  continued  at  first  to 
maintain  the  story  they  had  given  in  their  confession. 
But  the  Advocate,  perceiving  them  to  be  women  of  more 
sense  than  ordinary,  urged  upon  them  the  crime  of  being 
accessory  to  their  own  death,  by  persisting  in  accusing 
themselves  of  impossibilities,  and  promised  them  life  and 
protection,  providing  they  would  unfold  the  true  secret 
which  they  used  for  their  subsistence.  The  poor  women 
looked  wistfully  on  each  other,  like  people  that  are  in 
perplexity.  At  length,  the  mother  said,  ':  You  are  very 
good,  rny  lord,  and  I  dare  say  your  power  is  very  great, 
but  you  cannot  be  of  use  to  my  daughter  and  me.  If  you 
were  to  set  us  at  liberty  from  the  bar,  you  could  not  free 
us  from  the  suspicion  of  being  witches.  As  soon  as  we 
return  to  our  hut,  we  will  be  welcomed  by  the  violence 
and  abuse  of  all  our  neighbours,  who,  if  they  do  not  beat 
our  brains  out,  or  drown  us  on  the  spot,  will  retain  a  ha- 
tred and  ill-will,  which  will  show  itself  on  every  occasion, 
and  make  our  life  so  miserable,  that  we  have  made  up 
our  minds  to  prefer  death  at  once." 

"  Do  not  be  afraid  of  your  neighbours,"  said  the  Ad- 
vocate. "  If  you  will  trust  your  secret  with  rne,  1  will 
take  care  of  you  for  the  rest  of  your  lives,  and  send  you 
to  an  estate  of  mine  in  the  north,  where  nobody  can  know 
anything  of  your  history,  and  where  indeed, the  people's 
ideas  are  such,  that,  if  they  thought  you  witches,  they 
would  rather  regard  you  with  fear  than  hatred." 

The  women,  moved  by  his  promises,  told  him,  that,  il 
he  would  cause  to  he  removed  an  old  empty  trunk  which 
stood  n  the  corner  of  their  hut,  and  dig  the  earth  where 


TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT.  2/5 

I  e  saw  it  had  been  stirred,  he  would  find  the  secret  by 
ineans  of  which  they  had  been  supported  through  the 
famine  ;  protesting  to  Heaven,  at  the  same  time,  that  they 
were  totally  innocent  of  any  unlawful  arts  such  as  had 
been  imputed  to  them.  Sir  George  Mackenzie  hastened 
to  examine  the  spot,  and  found  concealed  in  the  earth  two 
firkins  of  salted  snails,  one  of  them  nearly  empty.  On 
this  strange  food  the  poor  women  had  been  nourished 
during  the  famine.  The  Advocate  was  as  good  as  his 
word  ;  and  the  story  shows  how  little  weight  is  to  be  laid 
on  the  frequent  confessions  of  the  party  in  cases  of  witch- 
craft. 

As  this  story  is  only  traditional,  I  will  mention  two 
others  of  the  same  kind,  to-  which  I  can  give  a  precise 
date. 

The  first  of  these  instances  regards  a  woman  of  rank, 
much  superior  to  those  who  wera  usually  accused  of  this 
imaginary  crime.  She  was  sister  of  Sir  John  Henderson 
of  Fordell,  and  wife  to  the  Laird  of  Pittardo,  in  Fife. 
Notwithstanding  her  honourable  birth,  this  unfortunate 
matron  was,  in  the  year  1649,  imprisoned  in  the  common 
iail  of  Edinburgh,  from  the  month  of  July  till  the  middle 
of  the  month  of  December,  when  she  was  found  dead, 
with  every  symptom  of  poison.  Undoubtedly  the  infamy 
of  the  charge,  and  the  sense  that  it  must  destroy  her 
character  and  disgrace  her  family,  was  the  cause  which 
instigated  her  to  commit  suicide. 

The  same  sentiment  which  drove  this  poor  lady  to  her 
death,  was  expressed  by  a  female,  young  and  handsome, 
executed  at  Paisley  in  1697,  in  the  following  short  an- 
swer to  some  of  her  friends,  who  were  blaming  her  for 
not  being  sufficiently  active  in  defending  herself  upon  her 
trial.  "  They  have  taken  away  my  character,"  she  said, 
"  and  my  life  is  not  worth  saving." 

It  was  remarkable  that  the  number  of  supposed  witches 
seemed  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  pun- 
ishment. On  the  22d  of  May  1650,  the  Scottish  Par- 
liamen.  named  a  committee  for  inquiry  into  the  deposi- 
tions of  no  less  than  fifty-four  witches,  with  power  to  grant 


i-IO  TRIALS    FOR    WITCHCRAFT. 

such  commissions  as  we  have  already  described,  to  pro- 
reed  with  their  trial,  condemnation,  and  execution.  Sup- 
posing these  dreaded  sorceresses  to  exist  in  such  numbers 
and  to  possess  the  powers  of  injury  imputed  to  them,  it 
was  to  be  expected,  as  Reginald  Scot  expresses  himself, 
tliat  "  there  would  neither  be  butter  in  the  churn,  nor  cow 
in  the  close,  nor  corn  in  the  field,  nor  fair  weather  without, 
or  health  within  doors."  Indeed  the  extent  to  which  peo- 
ple indulged  their  horrors  and  suspicions,  was  in  itself  the 
proof  of  their  being  fanciful.  If,  in  a  small  province,  or 
even  a  petty  town,  there  had  existed  scores  of  people 
possessed  of  supernatural  power,  the  result  would  be,  that 
the  laws  of  nature  would  have  been  liable  to  constant  in- 
terruption. 

The  English  judges  appointed  for  Scotland  in  Crom- 
well's time,  saw  the  cruelty  and  absurdity  of  witch-trials, 
and  endeavoured  to  put  a  stop  to  them  ;  but  the  thanks 
which  they  received  were  only  reflections  on  their  princi- 
ples of  toleration,  the  benefit  of  which,  in  the  opinion  ot 
the  Scots,  was  extended  by  this  lenity,  not  only  to  Here- 
tics of  every  denomination,  but  even  to  those  who  wor- 
shipped the  devil.  Some  went  still  further,  and  accused 
the  Sectaries  of  admitting  intercourse  with  evil  spirits  into 
their  devotions.  This  was  particularly  reported  and  be- 
lieved of  the  Quakers,  the  most  simple  and  moral  of  all 
dissenters  from  the  church. 

Wiser  and  better  views  on  the  subject  began  to  prevail 
in  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  capital  pros- 
ecutions for  this  imaginary  crime  were  seen  to  decrease. 
The  last  instance  of  execution  for  witchcraft,  took  place 
in  the  remote  province  of  Sutherland,  in  1727,  under  the 
direction  of  an  ignorant  provincial  judge,  who  was  cen- 
sured for  the  proceeding.  The  victim  was  an  old  woman 
in  her  last  dotage,  so  silly  that  she  was  delighted  to  warm 
her  wrinkled  hands  at  the  fire  which  was  to  consume  her ; 
and  while  they  were  preparing  for  her  execution,  often 
said,  so  good  a  blaze,  and  so  many  neighbours  gathered 
round  it,  made  the  most  cheerful  sight  she  had  seen  for 
many  years  ! 


CROMWELL'S  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT  217 

The  laws  against  witchcraft,  both  in  England  and  Scot 
laud,  were  abolished  ;  and  persons  who  pretend  to  fortune- 
telling,  the  use  of  spells,  or  similar  mysterious  feats  of 
skill,  are  now  punished  as  common  knaves  and  impostors. 
Since  this  has  been  the  case,  no  one  has  ever  heard  of 
witches  or  witchcraft,  even  among  the  most  ignorant  of 
the  vulgar ;  so  that  the  crime  must  have  been  entirely 
imaginary,  since  it  ceased  to  exist  so  soon  as  men  ceased 
to  hunt  it  out  for  punishment. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Cromwell's  System  of  Government — his  Dea'.h — Rich- 
ard Cromwell's  Accession  to  the  Protectoiate,  and 
Retirement  from  it — Anecdotes  of  him— -General 
Monk's  Advance  to  London — Dissolution  of  the  Long 
Parliament — Sir  John  Grenville's  Interview  with 
Monlc,  and  Proposal  for  the  Recall  of  the  Exiled 
Stewarts — TJie  Restoration — Arrival  of  Cha,les  II. 
at  Dover. 

OLIVER  CROMWELL,  who,  in  the  extraordinary  manner 
1  have  told  you,  raised  himself  to  the  supreme  sovereignty 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  was  a  man  of  great 
talents,  and,  as  has  been  already  said,  not  naturally  of  a 
severe  or  revengeful  disposition.  He  made  the  country 
formidable  to  foreign  powers,  and  perhaps  no  government 
was  ever  more  respected  abroad  than  that  of  the  Lord 
Protector. 

At  home  he  had  a  very  difficult  task  to  perform,  in 
order  to  maintain  his  usurped  authority.  He  was  obliged 
repeatedly,  as  has  been  successfully  done  in  other  coun- 
tries by  usurpers  of  his  own  class,  to  convoke  some  spe- 
cies of  senate  or  parliament,  consisting  of  his  own  crea- 
tures, who  might  divide  with  him  the  power,  in  outward 
appearance,  and  save  him  the  odium  of  governing  by  his 
10  VOL.  i.  2d  SER. 


218  SPIES    EMPLOYED    BY    CROMWELL. 

sole  authority.  But  such  was  the  spirit  of  the  English 
nation,  that  whenever  Cromwell  convoked  a  Parliament, 
though  in  a  great  measure  consisting  of  his  own  partizans, 
and  though  the  rest  were  studiously  chosen  as  mean  and 
ignorant  persons,  the  instant  that  they  met  they  began  to 
inquire  into  the  ground  of  the  Protector's  authority,  and 
propose  measures  which  interfered  with  his  assumption  of 
supreme  power. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  various  factions  into  which  the 
country  was  divided,  all  agreed  in  hating  the  usurped 
power  of  the  Protector,  and  were  all  engaged  in  conspir- 
acies against  him,  which  were  conceived  and  carried  on 
not  only  by  Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians,  but  by  Repub- 
licans, and  even  by  soldiers  among  his  own  ranks.  Thus 
hard  pressed  on  every  side,  he  displayed  the  utmost  sa- 
gacity in  his  mode  of  defending  himself.  On  two  or 
three  occasions,  indeed,  he  held  what  he  called  High 
Courts  of  Justice,  by  whose  doom  both  Cavaliers  and 
Presbyterians  suffered  capital  punishment,  for  plots  against 
his  government.  But  it  was  with  reluctance  Cromwell 
resorted  to  such  severe  measures.  His  general  policy 
was  to  balance  parties  against  each  other,  and  make  each 
of  them  desirous  of  the  subsistence  of  his  authority,  rather 
than  run  the  risk  of  seeing  it  changed  for  some  other  than 
i.heir  own.  At  great  expense  and  by  constant  assiduity, 
he  maintained  spies  in  the  councils  of  every  faction  of  the 
state,  and  often  the  least  suspected,  and  apparently  most 
vehement,  among  the  hostile  parties,  were,  in  private,  the 
mercenary  tools  of  Cromwell. 

In  the  wandering  court  of  Charles  II.  in  particular,  one 
of  the  most  noted  cavaliers  was  Sir  Richard  Willis,  who 
had  fought  bravely,  and  suffered  much,  in  the  cause  both 
of  the  late  King  and  of  his  son.  There  was  no  man 
among  the  Royalists  who  attended  on  Charles's  person  so 
much  trusted  and  honoured  as  this  gentleman,  who,  nev- 
ertheless, enjoyed  a  large  pension  from  Cromwell,  and 
betrayed  to  him  whatever  schemes  were  proposed  for  the 
restoration  of  the  exiled -monarch.  By  this  and  similar 
intercourse,  the  Protector  had  the  means  of  preventing 


RICHARD    CROMWELL. 

Ihe  numerous  conspiracies  against  him  from  coining  ;o  a 
head,  and  also  of  opposing  the  machinations  of  one  dis- 
contented party,  by  means  of  the  others. 

It  is  believed,  however,  that  with  all  his  an,  the  Pro- 
tector would  not  have  been  able  to  maintain  his  power  for 
many  years.  A  people  long  accustomed  to  a  free  gov- 
ernment, were  generally  incensed  at  being  subjected  to 
the  unlimited  authority  of  one  man,  and  the  discontent 
became  universal.  It  seemed  that,  towards  the  conclu- 
sion  of  his  life,  Cromwell  was  nearly  at  the  end  of  his 
expedients ;  and  it  is  certain,  that  his  own  conduct  then 
displayed  an  apprehension  of  danger  which  he  had  never 
before  exhibited.  He  became  morose  and  melancholy 
always  wore  secret  armour  under  his  ordinary  dress,  ami 
shifted  his  bedchamber  repeatedly,  to  prevent  assassina- 
tion. His  health  broke  down  under  these  gloomy  appre- 
hensions;  and  on  the  3d  of  September,  1658,  he  died  at 
the  age  of  sixty.  His  death  was  accompanied  by  a  gen- 
eral and  fearful  tempest ;  and  by  another  circumstance 
equally  striking  in  those  superstitious  times,  namely,  that 
he  died  on  the  day  and  month  in  which  he  had  gained  his 
decisive  victories  at  Dunbar  and  Worcester. 

The  sceptre,  which  Oliver  had  held  with  so  firm  a 
grasp,  was  transferred  to  that  of  his  son,  Richard  Crom- 
well ;  while  the  funeral  of  the  deceased  Protector  was 
solemnized  at  an  expense  superior  .far  to  what  England 
had  bestowed  on  the  obsequies  of  any  of  her  kings.  But 
this  apparent  transmission  of  Oliver's  authority  to  his  son 
was  only  nominal.  A  Parliament,  which  Richard  assem- 
bled that  they  might  vote  him  supplies,  commenced  an 
inquiry  into  the  nature  of  the  new  Lord  Protector's  title  ; 
and  a  council  of  officers  whom  he  convoked,  became  re- 
fractory, and  assumed  an  authority  which  he  dared  not 
dispute  with  them.  These  military  despots  compelled 
Richard  to  dissolve  the  Parliament,  and  subsequently 
obliged  him  to  resign  the  office  of  Protector.  He  de- 
scended quietly  into  humble  life,  burdened  not  only  by 
many  personal  debts,  but  also  by  the  demands  of  tl  ose 
who  had  supplied  the  exorbitant  expenses  of  his  father's 


*  ^0  ANECDOTES    OF    RICHARD    CROMVVLl.L. 

jjneral,  which  the  State  unworthily  and  meanly  suffered 
to  descend  upon  him. 

Richard  Cromwell,  removed  from  the  dangers  and  the 
guilt  of  jK>\ver,  lived  a  long  and  peaceable  life,  and  died 
in  17 12,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six.  Two  anecdotes  re- 
specting him  are  worth  mentioning.  When  he  was  obliged 
to  rot. ire  abroad  on  account  of  his  debts,  Richard  Crom- 
wdl  was  Ted,  from  curiosity,  to  visit  Pezenas,  a  fine  place 
in  J^nqi-jedoc.  -The  Prince  of  Conti,  a  French  prince 
of  the  blood  royal,  hearing  an  English  traveller  Was  in  the 
nalace,  had  the  curiosity  to  receive  him,  that  he  might 
karn  rue  latest  news  from  England,  which  at  this  time 
astonished  Europe  by  its  frequent  changes  of  government. 
The  Frxich  prince  spoke  of  Oliver  Cromwell  as  a  wicked 
man,  and  a  lawless  usurper  of  the  government ;  but  then 
he  acknowledged  his  deep  sagacity,  high  talents,  and  cour- 
age In  danger,  and  admired  the  art  and  force  with  which 
he  uad  subjected  three  kingdoms  to  his  own  individual 
authority.  "  He  knew  how  to  command,"  continued  the 
prince,  "  and  deserved  to  be  obeyed.  But  what  has 
become  of  the  poor  poltron,  Richard — the  coward,  the 
dastard,  who  gave  up,  without  a  blow  or  struggle,  all  that 
his  father  had  gained  ?  Have  you  any  idea  how  the  man 
sould  be  such  a  fool,  and  mean-spirited  caitiff?"  Pool 
Richard,  glad  to  remain  unknown  where  he  was  so  little 
esteemed,  only  replied,  "  that  the  abdicated  Protector 
had  been  deceived  by  those  in  whom  he  most  trusted,  and 
lo  whom  his  father  had  shown  most  kindness."  He  then 
took  leave  of  the  prince,  who  did  not  learn  till  two,  days 
afterwards,  that  he  had  addressed  so  un pleasing  a  dis- 
course to  the  person  whom  it  principally  regarded. 

The  other  anecdote  is  of  a  later  date,  being  subse- 
quent to  1705.  Some  lawsuit  of  importance  required' 
that  Richard  Cromwell  should  appear  in  the  King's  Bench 
Court.  The  judge  who  presided  showed  a  generous 
deference  to  fallen  greatness,  and  to  the  mutability  of  hu- 
man affairs.  He  received  with  respect  the  man  who  had 
oeen  once  Sovereign  of  England,  caused  a  chair  10  be 
placed  for  him  within  the  bar,  and  requested  him  to  be 


GENERAL  LAMBERT'S  SCHEMES.       22) 

covered.  When  the  counsel  on  the  opposite  side  began 
his  speech,  as  if  about  to  allude  to  Richard's  descent  from 
the  obnoxious  Oliver,  the  judge  checked  him  with  gene- 
rous independence.  "  I  will  hear  nothing  on  that  topic, 
sir,"  he  said ;  "  speak  to  the  merits  of  the  cause  before 
us."  After  his  appearance  in  court,  Richard  Cromwell's 
curiosity  carried  him  to  the  House  of  Peel's,  where  he 
stood  below  the  bar,  looking  around  him,  and  making 
observations  on  the  alterations  which  he  saw.  A  person 
who  heard  a  decent  looking  old  man  speaking  in  this  way, 
said  to  him,  civilly,  "  It  is  probably  a  long  while,  sir,  since 
you  have  been  in  this  house  ?" — "  Not  since  I  sat  in  that 
chair,"  answered  the  old  gentleman,  pointing  to  the  throne, 
on  which  he  had  been,  indeed,  seated  as  sovereign,  when, 
more  than  fifty  years  before,  he  received  the  addresses  of 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  on  his  succeeding  to  his  fath- 
er in  the  supreme  power. 

To  return  to  public  affairs  in  London,  where  changes 
succeeded  with  as  little  permanence,  as  the  reflection  of 
faces  presented  to  a  mirror,  the  attempt  of  the  officers 
of  the  army  to  establish  a  purely  military  government,  was 
combated  by  the  return  to  Parliament  of  those  republican 
members  whom  Oliver  Cromwell  had  expelled,  and  whom 
the  common  people,  by  a  vulgar  but  expressive  nickname, 
now  called  the  Rump  Parliament.  This  assembly,  so 
called  because  it  was  the  sitting  part  of  that  which  com- 
menced the  civil  war,  were  again  subjected  to  military 
violence,  and  dissolved  by  General  Lambert,  a  person 
who  unquestionably  designed  in  his  own  person  to  act  the 
part,  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  though  without  either  the  talents 
of  high  reputation  of  the  original  performer.  But  a  gen- 
eral change  had  taken  place  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
nation. 

The  public  had  been  to  a  certain  degree  patient  under 
the  government  of  Oliver,  to  whom  it  was  impossible  to 
deny  all  the  praise  which  belongs  to  firmness  and  energy  • 
but  they  saw  with  disgust  these  feeble  usurpers  bustle 
amongst  themselves,  and  push  each  other  from  the  rudder 


22  MARCH    OF    GENERAL    MONK 

of  the  state,  without  consulting  the  people  at  large.  Re- 
membering the  quiet  and  peaceful  condition  of  the  king- 
dom before  the  civil  wars,  when  its  kings  succeeded  by  a 
hereditary  right  to  a  limited  power,  and  when  the  popular 
and  monarchical  branches  of  the  constitution  so  justly  bal- 
anced each  other,  that  the  whole  British  nation  looked 
back  to  the  period  as  one  of  liberty,  peace,  and  lawful 
order  ;  and  comparing  this  happy  state  with  the  recent 
manner  in  which  every  successive  faction  seized  upon 
power  when  they  could  snatch  it,  and  again  yielded  it  up 
to  the  grasp  of  another  and  stronger  party,  all  men  were 
filled  with  dissatisfaction. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  thoughts  of  all  the  judicious  part 
of  the  nation  were  turned  towards  the  exiled  Prince,  and 
there  was  a  general  desire  to  call  him  back  to  the  exercise 
of  the  government,  which  was  only  suppressed  by  the 
strong  hand  of  the  armed  fanatics.  It  was  absolutely 
necessary  that  some  military  force  should  be  on  foot,  in 
order  to  cope  with  these  warlike  Saints,  as  they  called 
themselves,  before  the  general  inclination  of  the  kingdom 
could  have  room  or  freedom  to  express  itself. 

As  it  was  the  disturbances  in  Scotland  which  first  shook 
the  throne  of  Charles  the  First,  so  it  was  from  the  same 
country  that  the  movement  took  place  which  eventually 
replaced  on  the  throne  his  son  and  heir.  We  have  al- 
ready noticed,  that  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  had  been 
finally  subdued  by  the  efforts  of  General  Monk,  who  af- 
terwards governed  it  during  the  protectorate  of  Cromwell, 
and  in  obedience  to  his  authority. 

Monk  was  a  man  of  grave,  reserved,  and  sagacious 
sharacter,  who  had  gained  general  esteem  by  the  manner 
in  which  he  managed  Scottish  affairs.  He  had  taken  care 
to  model  the  veteran  troops  in  that  kingdom,  so  as  to  sub 
ject  them  to  his  own  separate  control,  and  to  detach  from 
their  command  such  officers  as  were  either  violent  enthu- 
siasts, or  particularly  attached  to  Lambert  and  his  council 
of  officers.  Thus  having  under  his  immediate  command 
a  movable  force  of  between  seven  and  eight  thousand 
rnen,  besides  those  necessary  to  garrison  Scotland,  Monk 


UPON    THE    BORDERS.  2°3 

eagerly  watched  the  contest  of  the  factions  in  London, 
in  order  to  perceive  and  seize  on  the  fit  opportunity  for 
action. 

This  seemed  to  arrive,  when  the  army  under  Lambert 
again  thrust  the  Rump  Parliament  out  of  doors,  and  com- 
menced a  new  military  government,  by  means  of  a  com- 
mittee of  officers,  called  the  Council  of  Safety.  Monk 
i hen  threw  aside  the  mask  of  indifference  which  he  had 
iong  worn,  assembled  his  forces  on  the  borders,  and  de- 
rlared  for  the  freedom  of  Parliament,  and  against  the 
military  faction  by  which  they  had  been  suppressed.  The 
persuasion  was  universal  throughout  Britain,  that  Monk, 
by  these  general  expressions,  meant  something  more  ef- 
fectual than  merely  restoring  the  authority  of  the  Rump, 
which  had  fallen  into  the  common  contempt  of  all  men, 
by  the  repeated  acts  of  violence  to  which  they  had  tamely 
submitted.  But  General  Monk,  allowing  all  parties  to 
suppose  what  they  thought  most  probable,  proceeded  to 
make  his  preparations  for  marching  with  the  greatest  de- 
liberation, without  suffering  even  a  whisper  to  escape 
concerning  the  ultimate  objects  of  the  expedition.  He 
assembled  the  Scottish  Convention  of  Estates,  and  asked 
and  received  from  them  a  supply  of  six  months'  pay,  for 
the  maintenance  of  his  troops.  Their  confidence  in  his 
intentions  was  such,  that  they  offered  him  the  support  of 
a  Scottish  army  of  twenty-four  thousand  men ;  but  Monk 
declined  assistance  which  would  have  been  unpopular  in 
England.  He  then  proceeded  in  his  plan  of  new-model- 
ling his  army,  with  more  boldness  than  before,  dismissing 
many  of  the  Independent  officers,  and  supplying  their 
places  with  Presbyterians,  and  even  with  secret  Royal- 
ists. 

The  news  of  these  proceedings  spread  through  Eng- 
land, and  were  generally  received  with  joy.  Universal 
resistance  was  made  to  the  payment  of  taxes  ;  for  the 
Rump  Parliament  had,  on  the  eve  of  its  expulsion  by 
Lambert,  declared  it  high  treason  to  levy  money  without 
consent  of  Parliament,  and  the  provinces,  where  Lamber! 
nd  his  military  council  had  no  power  of  enforcing  their 


224  MONK     AND    LAMBKBT. 

illegal  exactions,  refused  to  obey  them.  The  Council  of 
Safety  wanted  money  therefore,  and  were  in  extreme 
perplexity. 

L;nnbert  himself,  a  brave  man  and  a  good  officer,  saw 
the  necessity  of  acting  with  promptitude,  and  placing  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  considerable  force  of  veteran  sol- 
diers, marched  towards  Scotland.  His  numbers  were 
enhanced -by  the  report  of  the  various  spies  and  agents 
whom  he  sent  into  Monk's  army  under  the  guise  of  en- 
voys.  "  What  will  you  do  ?"  said  one  of  these  persons, 
addressing  a  party  of  Monk's  soldiers ;  "  Lambert  is 
coming  down  against  you  with  such  numerous  forces,  that 
your  army  will  not  be  a  breakfast  for  him."  "The  north 
must  have  given  Lambert  a  good  appetite,"  answered  one 
of  the  veterans,  "  if  he  be  willing  to  chew  bullets,  and 
feed  upon  pikes  and  musket  barrels." 

In  this  tone  of  defiance  the  two  armies  moved  against 
each  other.  Lambert  took  up  his  head-quarters  at  New- 
castle. Monk,  on  the  other  hand,  placed  his  at  Cold- 
stream,  on  the  Tweed,  a  place  which  commanded  the 
second  best  passage  over  that  river,  Berwick  being  already 
in  his  hands.  Coldstream,  now  a  thriving  town,  was  then 
so  miserable,  that  Monk  could  get  no  supper,  even  for  his 
own  table,  but  was  fain  to  have  recourse  to  chewing  to- 
bacco to  appease  his  hunger.  Next  day,  provisions  were 
sent  from  Berwick  ;  and  the  camp  at  Coldstream  is  still 
kept  in  memory  in  the  English  army,  by  the  first  regiment 
of  Guards,  which  was  one  of  those  that  composed  Monk's 
vanguard,  being  called  to  this  day  the  Coldstream  regi- 
ment. 

The  rival  generals  at  first  engaged  in  a  treaty,  which 
Monk,  perceiving  Lambert's  forces  to  be  more  numerous 
than  his  own,  for  some  time  encouraged,  aware  that  want 
of  pay,  and  of  the  luxuries  to  which  they  were  accustom- 
ed in  London,  would  soon  induce  his  rival's  troops  to  de- 
sert him. 

Disaffection  and  weariness  accordingly  began  to  dimin- 
rsh  Lambert's  forces,  when  at  bngth  they  lizard  news  from 
the  capital  by  which  thsv  we^e  totally  disoirited.  During 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    MONK  225 

Lambert's  absence,  the  presidency  in  the  Military  Com- 
mittee, and  the  command  of  such  of  the  army  as  remain- 
ed to  overawe  London,  devolved  on  General  Fleetvvood, 
a  weak  man,  who  really  was  overcome  hy  the  feelings  of 
fanaticism,  which  others  only  affected.  Incapable  of  any 
exertion,  this  person  suffered  the  troops  to  be  seduced 
from  his  interest  to  that  of  the  Rump  Parliament,  which 
thus  came  again,  and  for  the  last  time,  into  power.  With 
these  tidings  came  to  Newcastle  others  of  a  nature  scarce 
less  alarming.  The  celebrated  General  Fairfax  had  taken 
arms  in  Yorkshire,  and  was  at  the  head  of  considerable 
forces,  both  Cavaliers  and  Presbyterians,  who  declared 
for  calling  a  free  Parliament,  that  the  national  will  might 
be  consulted  in  the  most  constitutional  manner,  for  once 
more  regaining  the  blessing  of  a  settled  government.  The 
soldiers  of  Lambert,  disconcerted  by  these  events,  and 
receiving  no  pay,  began  to  break  up ;  and  when  Lambert 
himself  attempted  to  lead  them  back  to  London,  they  left 
him  in  such  numbers,  that  his  army  seemed  actually  to 
dissolve  away,  and  leave  the  road  to  the  capital  open  to 
Monk  and  the  Scottish  forces. 

That  General  moved  on  accordingly,  without  opposition, 
carefully  concealing  his  own  intentions,  receiving  favour- 
ably all  the  numerous  applications  which  were  made  to 
him  for  calling  a  new  and  free  Parliament,  in  order  to 
regenerate  the  national  constitution,  but  returning  no  reply 
which  could  give  the  slightest  intimation  of  his  ultimate 
purpose.  Monk  observed  this  mystery,  in  order,  perhaps, 
thf  *  he  might  reserve  to  himself  the  power  of  being  guid- 
ed by  circumstances — at  all  events,  knowing  well,  tint  if 
he  were  to  declare  in  favour  of  any  one  party  or  set  of 
piinciples,  among  the  various  factious  opinions  which  di- 
vided the  state,  the  others  would  at  once  unite  against  him, 
which  they  would  be  loath  to  attempt,  while  each  as  yet 
entertained  hopes  that  he  might  turn  to  their  side. 

With  the  eyes  of  all  the  nation  fixed  upon  him  and  his 
forces,  Monk  advanced  to  Barnet,  within  ten  miles  of  Lon- 
don, and  from  thence  caused  the  Parliament  to  understand 
that  they  \\  ould  do  well  to  send  from  the  city  the  remain9 
894 


226  PROCEEDINGS    OF    MONK 

of  the  army  of  Fleetwood,  in  case  of  discord  between  b». 
troops  and  those  which  at  present  occupied  the  capital. 
The  Hump  Parliament  had  no  alternative  but  to  take  the 
hint,  unless  they  had  resolved  to  try  the  fate  of  battle  at 
the  head  of  those  insubordinate  troops,  who  had  more 
than  once  changed  sides  between  Lambert  and  Fleettvood 
on  one  side,  and  themselves  on  the  other,  against  the  steady 
veterans  of  the  Scottish  wars.  The  late  army  of  Fleet- 
wood,  excepting  two  regiments  commanded  by  men  whom 
Monk  could  perfectly  trust,  were  ordered  to  leave  the  city, 
and  the  Scottish  general  entered  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
who,  rough  from  a  toilsome  march,  and  bearing  othei 
marks  of  severe  service,  made  a  far  more  hardy  and  ser 
viceable,  though  a  less  showy  appearance,  than  those  who 
had  so  long  bridled  the  people  of  London. 

General  Monk,  and  the  remnant  of  the  Parliament,  met 
with  external  civility,  but  with  great  distrust  on  both  sides, 
They  propounded  to  him  the  oath  of  abjuration,  as  it  was 
called,  by  which  he  was  to  renounce  and  abjure  all  allegi- 
ance to  the  House  of  Stewart,  and  all  attempts  to  restore 
Charles  II.  But  the  General  declined  taking  the  oath ; 
too  many  oaths,  he  said,  had  been  already  imposed  on  the 
public,  unless  they  had  been  better  kept.  This  circum- 
stance seemed  to  throw  light  on  Monk's  intentions,  and 
the  citizens  of  London,  now  as  anxious  for  the  King's 
Restoration  as  ever  they  had  been  for  the  expulsion  of  his 
father,  passed  a  vote  in  Common  Council,  by  which  they 
declared  they  would  pay  no  taxes  or  contributions  to  this 
shadow  of  a  Parliament,  until  the  vacant  seats  in  it  should 
be  filled  up  to  the  full  extent  of  a  genuine  House  of 
Commons. 

The  Rump  Parliament  had  now,  they  conceived,  an 
opportunity  of  ascertaining  Monk's  real  purpose,  and  forc- 
ing him  to  a  decisive  measure.  They  laid  their  express 
commands  on  him  to  march  into  the  city,  seize  upon  the 
gates,  break  down  the  portcullises,  destroy  the  ports, 
chains,  and  other  means  of  defending  the  streets,  and  take 
from  the  contumacious  citizens  all  means  of  protecting  in 
future  the  entrance  into  the  capital. 


ON    REACHING    LONDON.  227 

Monk,  to  the  astonishment  of  most  of  his  own  officers 
obeyed  the  commands  thus  imposed  on  him.  He  wag 
probably  desirous  of  ascertaining  whether  the  disposition 
oi  his  troops  would  induce  them  to  consider  the  task  as  a 
harsh  and  unworthy  one.  Accordingly,  he  no  sooner 
heard  his  soldiers  exclaiming  at  the  disgrace  of  becoming 
the  tools  of  the  vengeance  of  the  Rump  members  against 
the  City  of  London,  than  he  seemed  to  adopt  their  feel- 
ings and  passions  as  his  own,  and  like  them  complained, 
and  complained  aloud,  of  having  been  employed  in  an 
unjust  and  unpopular  task,  for  the  express  purpose  of  ren- 
dering him  odious  to  the  citizens. 

At  this  crisis,  the  rashness  of  the  ruling  junto,  for  it 
would  be  absurd  to  term  them  a  Parliament,  gave  the 
General,  whom  it  was  their  business  to  propitiate  if  possi- 
ble, a  new  subject  of  complaint.  They  encouraged  a 
body  of  the  most  fanatical  sectaries,  headed  by  a  ridiculous 
personage  called  Praise-God  Barebones,  to  present  a  vio- 
lent petition  to  the  House,  demanding  that  no  one  should 
be  admitted  to  any  office  of  public  trust,  or  so  much  as 
to  teach  a  school,  without  his  having  taken  the  abjuration 
oath  ;  and  proposing,  that  any  motion  made  in  parliament 
for  the  Restoration  of  the  King  should  be  visited  with  the 
pains  of  high  treason. 

The  tenor  of  this  petition,  and  the  honour  and  favour 
which  it  received  when  presented,  gave  Monk  the  further 
cause  of  complaint  against  the  Rump,  or  Remnant  of  the 
Parliament,  which  perhaps  he  had  been  seeking  for.  He 
refused  to  return  to  Whitehall,  where  he  had  formerly 
lodged,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the  City,  where  he  found 
it  easy  to  excuse  his  late  violence  upon  their  defences, 
and  to  atone  for  it  by  declaring  himself  their  protector  and 
ally.  From  his  quarters  in  the  heart  of  Ijondon,  the 
General  wrote  to  tho  Parliament  an  angry  expostulation, 
charging  them  with  a  design  to  arm  the  more  violent 
fanatics,  and  call  in  the  assistance  of  Fleetwood  and  Lam- 
bert against  the  Scottish  army ;  and  recommending  to 
them  'V  a  tone  of  authority,  forthwith  to  dissolve  them- 
»  ive~  and  call  a  new  Parliament,  which  should  be  open 


DISSOLUTION  OF    THE 

U.»  si.1  parti3S.  The  Parliament,  greatly  alarmed  at  this 
int'.ma  ion.  sent  two  of  their  members  to  communicate 
w"h  '.he  General;  but  they  could  only  extract  from  him, 
that  if  writs  went  instantly  forth  for  the  new  elections,  it 
would  be  very  well,  otherwise,  he  and  they  were  likely  to 
disagree. 

The  assurance  that  General  Monk  had  openly  quarrelled 
with  the  present  rulers,  and  was  disposed  to  insist  for  a 
free  and  full  Parliament,  was  made  public  by  the  printing 
and  dispersing  of  the  General's  letter,  and  the  tidings 
filled  the  City  with  most  extravagant  rejoicings.  The 
rabble  rung  all  the  bells,  lighted  immense  bonfires  in  every 
street,  and  danced  around  them,  while  they  drank  healths 
to  the  General,  the  secluded  members,  and  even  to  the 
King.  But  the  principal  part  of  their  amusement  was 
roasting  rumps  of  poultry,  or  fragments  of  butcher-meat 
cut  into  that  form,  in  ridicule  of  their  late  rulers,  whose 
power  they  foresaw  would  cease,  whenever  a  full  Parlia- 
ment should  be  convened.  The  revelry  lasted  the  whole 
night,  which  was  that  of  llth  February,  1660. 

Monk,  supported  at  once  by  military  strength  and  the 
consciousness  of  general  popularity,  did  not  wait  until  the 
new  Parliament  should  be  assembled,  or  the  present  dis- 
solved, to  ta  e  measures  for  destroying  the  influence  of 
the  junto  now  sitting  at  Westminster.  He  compelled 
them  to  open  their  doors  to,  and  admit  to  their  delibera- 
tions and  votes,  all  the  secluded  members  of  their  body, 
who  had  been  expelled  from  their  seats  by  military  vio- 
lence, since  it  was  first  practised  on  the  occasion  called 
Colonel  Pride's  Purge.  These  members,  returning  to 
Parliament  accordingly,  made  by  their  numbers  such  a 
predominant  majority  in  the  House,  that  the  fifty  or  sixty 
persons,  who  had  lately  been  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment, were  instantly  reduced  to  the  insignficance,  as  a 
party,  from  which  they  had  only  emerged  by  dint  of  the 
force  which  had  been  exercised  to  exclude  the  large  body 
who  were  now  restored  to  their  seats. 

The  first  acts  of  the  House  thus  renovated  were  ;o  dis- 
Dand  the  refractory  part  of  the  army,  to  dispossess  the 


LONG    PARLIAMENT.  229 

disaffected  officers,  of  whom  there  were  very  many,  and 
to  reduce  the  country  to  a  state  of  tranquillity  ;  after 
which  they  dissolved  themselves,  having  first  issued  writs 
to  summon  a  new  Parliament,  to  meet  on  the  25th  01 
April.  Thus  then  finally  ended  the  Long  Parliament,  as 
it  is  called,  which  had  sat  for  nearly  twenty  years  j  the 
most  eventful  period,  perhaps,  in  British  history. 

While  this  important  revolution  had  heen  on  the  eve  of 
taking  place,  Charles  the  Second's  affairs  seemed  to  be  at 
a  lower  ebb  than  they  had  almost  ever  been  before.  A 
general  insurrection  of  the  Cavaliers  had  been  defeated 
by  Lambert  a  few  months  before,  and  the  severe  mea.sures 
which  followed  had,  for  the  time,  totally  suppressed  the 
spirit,  and  almost  crushed  the  party  of  the  Royalists.  It 
was  in  vain  that  Charles  had  made  advances  to  Monk  while 
in  Scotland,  both  through  the  General's  own  brother,  and 
by  means  of  Sir  John  Grenville,  one  of  his  nearest  and 
most  valued  relatives  and  friends.  If  Monk's  mind  was 
then  made  up  concerning  the  part  which  he  designed  to 
perform,  he,  at  least,  was  determined  to  keep  his  purpose 
secret  in  his  own  bosom,  and  declined,  therefore,  though 
civilly,  to  hear  any  proposition  on  the  part  of  the  banished 
family.  The  accounts  which  the  little  exiled  court  re- 
ceived concerning  Monk's  advance  into  England  were 
equally  disconsolate.  All  intercourse  with  the  Cavaliers 
had  been  carefully  avoided  by  the  cloudy  and  mysterious 
soldier,  in  whose  hands  Fortune  seemed  to  place  the  fate 
of  the  British  kingdoms.  The  general  belief  was,  that 
Monk  would  renew,  in  his  own  person,  the  attempt  in 
which  Cromwell  had  succeeded  and  Lambert  had  failed, 
and  again  place  a  military  commander  at  the  head  of  the 
Government ;  and  it  seemed  confirmed  by  his  harsh  treat- 
ment of  the  City. 

Wiiile  Charles  and  his  attendants  were  in  this  state  ol 
despondence,  they  were  suddenly  astonished  by  the  arrivaf 
from  England  of  a  partizan,  named  Baillie  an  Irish  Roy- 
alist, who  had  travelled  with  extreme  rapidity  to  bring  the 
exiled  Prince  the  news  of  Monk's  decided  breacli  willi 


230  THE    RESTORATION. 

the  remnant  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  the  temper 
which  had  been  displayed  by  the  City  of  London  when  it 
became  public.  They  listened  to  the  messenger  as  they 
would  have  done  to  one  speaking  in  a  dream.  Over- 
wearied and  fatigued  by  the  journey,  and  strongly  excited 
hv  the  importance  of  the  intelligence  which  he  brought 
them,  the  officer  seemed  rather  like  one  under  the  inHu- 
ence  of  temporary  derangement  or  intoxication,  than  the 
deliberate  bearer  of  great  tidings.  His  character  was, 
however,  known  as  a  gentleman  of  fidelity  and  firmness, 
and  they  heard  with  wonder  that  London  was  blazing 
with  bonfires,  that  the  universal  wish  of  the  people  of  all 
sorts,  boldly  and  freely  expressed,  demanded  the  restora- 
tion of  the  King  to  his  authority,  and  that  Monk  had  in- 
sisted upon  the  summoning  of  a  free  Parliament,  which 
the  junto  had  no  longer  the  power  of  opposing.  He  pro- 
duced also  a  copy  of  Moivk's  letter  to  the  Parliament,  to 
show  that  the  General  had  completely  broken  with  that 
body. 

Other  messengers  soon  confirmed  the  joyful  tidings, 
and  Sir  John  Grenville  was  despatched  to  London  in  all 
haste,  with  full  powers  to  offer  the  General  every  thing 
which  could  gratify  ambition  or  love  of  wealth,  on  condi- 
tion of  his  proving  the  friend  of  Charles  at  this  crisis. 

This  faithful  and  active  Royalist  reached  the  metropo- 
lis, and  cautiously  refusing  to  open  his  commission  to  any 
one,  obtained  a  private  interview  with  the  mysterious  and 
reserved  General.  He  boldly  communicated  his  creden- 
tials, and  remained  unappalled,  when  Monk,  stepping  back 
in  surprise,  asked  him,  with  some  emotion,  how  he  dared 
become  the  bearer  of  such  proposals.  Sir  John  replied 
boldly,  that  all  danger  which  might  be  incurred  in  obedi- 
ence to  his  Sovereign's  command  had  become  familiar  to 
him  from  frequent  practice,  and  that  the  King,  from  the 
course  which  Monk  had  hitherto  pursued,  entertained  the 
most  confident  hope  of  his  loyal  service.  On  this  General 
Monk  either  laid  aside  the  mask  which  he  had  always 
worn,  or  formed  a  determination  upon  what  had  hitherto 
been  undecided  in  his  own  mind.  He  accepted  of  th- 


THE    RESTORATION.  23 1 

high  offers  tendered  to  him  by  the  young  Prince  ;  and, 
.Tom  that  moment,  if  not  earlier,  made  the  interest  01 
Charles  the  principal  object  of  his  thoughts.  It  has  been 
indeed  stated,  that  he  had  expressed  his  ultimate  purpose 
of  serving  Charles,  before  leaving  Scotland  ;  but  whatever 
may  have  been  his  secret  intentions,  it  seems  improbable 
that  he  made  any  one  his  confidant. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  new  Parliament,  the  House  of 
Peers,  which  regained  under  this  new  aspect  of  things  the 
privileges  which  Cromwell  had  suspended,  again  assumed 
their  rank  as  a  branch  of  the  legislature.  As  the  Royalists 
and  Presbyterians  concurred  in  the  same  purpose  of  re- 
storing the  King,  and  possessed  the  most  triumphant 
majority,  if  not  the  whole  votes,  in  the  new  House  of 
Commons,  the  Parliament  had  only  to  be  informed  that 
Grenville  awaited  without,  bearing  letters  from  King 
Charles,  when  he  was  welcomed  into  the  House  with  shouts 
and  rejoicings  ;  and  the  British  constitution,  by  King 
Lords,  and  Commons,  after  having  been  suspended  for 
twenty  years,  was  restored  at  once  and  by  acclamation. 

Charles  Stewart,  instead  of  being  a  banished  pretender, 
whose  name  it  was  dangerous  to  pronounce,  and  whose 
cause  it  was  death  to  espouse,  became  at  once  a  lawful, 
beloved,  almost  adored  prince,  whose  absence  was  mourn- 
ed by  the  people,  as  they  might  have  bemoaned  that  of 
the  sun  itself ;  and  numbers  of  the  great  or  ambitious 
hurried  to  Holland,  where  Charles  now  was,  some  to  plead 
former  services,  some  to  excuse  ancient  delinquencies, 
some  to  allege  the  merit  of  having  staked  their  lives  in  the 
King's  cause,  others  to  enrich  the  Monarch,  by  sharing 
with  him  the  spoils  which  they  had  gained  by  fighting 
against  him. 

It  has  been  said  by  historians,  that  this  precipitate  aud 
general  haste  in  restoring  Charles  to  the  throne,  without 
any  conditions  for  the  future,  was  throwing  away  all  the 
advantage  which  the  nation  might  have  derived  from  the 
Civil  Wars,  and  that  it  would  have  been  much  better  to 
have  readmitted  the  King  upon  a  solemn  treaty,  which 
should  have  adjusted  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown,  and 


THE    RKSTORATION. 

the  rights  of  the  subject,  and  settled  for  ever  those  great 
national  questions  which  had  been  di>»uted  between 
diaries  the  first  and  his  Parliament.  This  sounds  all 
well  in  theory  ;  but  in  practice  there  are  many  things, 
and  perhaps  the  Restoration  is  one  of  them,  which  may 
be  executed  easily  and  safely,  if  the  work  is  commenced 
and  carried  through  in  the  enthusiasm  of  a  favourable  mo- 
ment, but  are  likely  enough  to  miscarry,  if  protracted 
fteyond  that  happy  conjuncture.  The  ardour  in  favour 
of  monarchy,  with  which  the  mass  of  the  English  nation 
was  at  this  time  agitated,  might  probably  have  abated 
during  such  a  lengthened  treaty,  providing  for  all  the 
delicate  questions  respecting  the  settlement  of  the  Church 
and  State,  and  involving  necessarily  a  renewal  of  all  the 
discussions  which  had  occasioned  the  Civil  War.  And 
supposing  that  the  old  discord  was  not  rekindled  by  raking 
among  its  ashes,  still  it  should  be  remembered  that  great 
part  of  Cromwell's  army  were  not  yet  dissolved,  and  that 
even  Monk's  troops  were  not  altogether  to  be  confided 
in.  So  that  the  least  appearance  of  disunion,  such  as  the 
discussions  of  the  proposed  treaty  were  certain  to  give 
rise  to,  might  have  afforded  these  warlike  enthusiasts  a 
pretext  for  again  assembling  together,  and  reinstating  the 
military  despotism,  which  they  were  pleased  to  term  the 
Reign  of  the  Saints. 

A  circumstance  occurred  which  showed  how  very 
pressing  this  danger  was,  and  how  little  wisdom  there 
would  have  been  in  postponing  the  restoration  of  a  legal 
government  to  the  event  of  a  treaty.  Lambert,  who  had 
been  lodged  in  the  Tower  as  a  dangerous  person,  made 
his  escape  from  that  state  prison,  fled  to  Daventry,  and 
began  to  assemble  forces.  The  activity  of  Colonel  In- 
goldsby,  who  had  been,  like  Lambert,  himself  an  officer 
under  Cromwell,  but  was  now  firmly  attached  to  Monk, 
stifled  a  spark  which  might  have  raised  a  mighty  confla- 
gration. He  succeeded  in  gaining  over  and  dispersing: 
the  troops  who  had  assembled  under  Lambert,  and  mak- 
ing his  former  commander  prisoner  with  his  own  hand, 
brought  him  back  in  safety  to  his  old  quarters  in  the  Town 


THE    RESTORATION.  233 

* 

of  London.  But  as  the  roads  were  filled  with  soldiers  of 
the  Crormvellian  army,  hastening  to  join  Lambert,  it  was 
clear  that  only  the  immediate  suppression  of  his  force,  am] 
the  capture  of  his  person,  prevented  the  renewal  of  gen- 
eral hostilities. 

In  so  delicate  a  state  of  affairs,  it  was  of  importance 
that  the  Restoration,  being  the  measure  to  which  all  wise 
men  looked  as  the  only  radical  cure  lor  the  distresses  and 
'sorders  of  the  kingdom,  should  be  executed  hastily, 
saving  it  in  future  to  the  mutual  prudence  of  the  King  and 
nis  subjects  to  avoid  the  renewal  of  those  points  of  quarrel 
which  had  given  rise  to  the  Civil  War  of  1641  ;  since 
which  time,  both  Royalists  and  Parliamentarians  had  suf- 
fered such  extreme  misery  as  was  likely  to  make  them 
very  cautious  how  the  one  made  unjust  attempts  to  extend 
the  power  of  the  Crown,  or  the  other  to  resist  it  while 
within  its  constitutional  limits. 

The  King  landed  at  Dover  on  29th  May  1 660,  and  was 
received  by  General  Monk,  now  gratified  and  honoured 
with  the  dukedom  of  Albemarle,  the  Order  of  the  Garter, 
and  the  command  of  the  army.  With  the  King  came  his 
two  brothers,  James  Duke  of  York,  of  whom  we  shall 
have  much  to  say,  and  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  who  died 
early.  They  were  received  with  such  extravagant  shouts 
of  welcome,  that  the  King  said  to  those  around  him,  "  It 
must  surely  have  been  our  own  fault,  that  we  have  b<?en 
so  Ion?  absent  from  a  country  where  every  one  seems  so 
glacl  to  ses  us." 


END    OF    VOLUME    I. 


.  HISTORY  OF  SCOTLAND. 

BY  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 
PART  SECOND. 

CHAPTER  1. 

Character  of  Charles  II. Middleton   sent  as  High 

Commissioner  to  Scotland — Measures  of  the  Scottish 
Parliament  for  the  Introduction  of  Episcopacy — Trial 
and  Execution  of  the  Marquis  of  Jlrgyle — Trial  oj 
Judge  Swinton,  and  others — Act  of  Uniformity — The 
Nonconforming  Clergy  displaced — The  Earl  of  Lau- 
derdale  succeeds  to  the  power  of  Middleton. 

OF  Charles  the  Second,  who  thus  unexpectedly,  and 
as  it  were  by  miracle,  was  replaced  on  his  father's  throne, 
in  spite  of  so  many  obstacles  as  within  even  a  week  or 
two  of  the  event  seemed  to  render  it  incredible,  I  have 
not  much  that  is  advantageous  to  tell  you.  He  was  a 
prince  of  an  excellent  understanding,  of  which  he  made 
less  use  than  he  ought  to  have  done  ;  a  graceful  address, 
much  ready  wit,  and  no  deficiency  of  courage.  Unfoi- 
tunately,  he  was  very  fond  of  pleasure,  and,  in  his  zeal 
to  pursue  it,  habitually  neglected  the  interests  of  his  king- 
dom. He  was  very  selfish  too,  like  all  whose  own  grat- 
ification is  their  sole  pursuit ;  and  he  seems  to  have  cared 
little  what  became  of  friends  or  enemies,  providing  he 
could  mainlain  himself  on  the  throne,  get  money  to  sup- 
ply the  expenses  of  a  luxurious  and  dissolute  court,  and 
enjoy  a  life  of  easy  and  dishonourable  pleasure.  He  was 
good-natured  in  general  ;  but  any  apprehension  of  hi? 
own  safety  easily  induced  him  to  be  severe  and  even 
ruel,  fo:  his  love  of  self  predominated  above  both  his 


T  STATE    OF    CHURCH    AFFAI113 

sense  of  justice   and  his  natural   clemency   of  temper 
He  was  always  willing  to  sacrifice   sincerity  to  converi. 
ience,  and  perhaps  the  satirical  epitaph  written  upon  him 
at  his  own  request,  by  his   witty  favourite,  the   Earl  iJ 
Rochester,  is  not  more  severe  than  just- 
Here  lies  our  Sovereign  Lord,  the  King, 

Whose  word  no  man  relies  on  ; 
Who  never  said  a  foolish  thing, 
And  never  did  a  wise  one. 

After  this  sketch  of  the  King's  character,  we  must  return 
to  Scotland,  from  which  we  have  been  absent  since 
Monk's  march  from  Coldstream,  to  accomplish  the  Re- 
storation. 

This  great  event  was  celebrated  with  the  same  general 
and  joyful  assent  in  Scotland  which  had  hailed  it  in  the 
sister  country.  Indeed  the  Scots,  during  the  whole  war, 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  quitted  their  sentiments  of 
loyalty  to  the  monarchy.  They  had  fought  against  Charles 
I.,  first  to  establish  Presbytery  in  their  own  country,  and 
then  to  extend  it  into  England  ;  but  then  even  the  most 
rigid  of  the  Presbyterians  had  united  in  the  resistance  to 
the  English,  had  owned  the  right  of  Charles  the  Second, 
and  asserted  it  to  their  severe  national  loss  at  the  battle 
of  Dunbar.  Since  that  eventful  action,  the  influence  o< 
the  Church  of  Scotland  over  the  people  at  large  had 
been  considerably  diminished,  by  disputes  among  the 
ministers  themselves,  as  they  espoused  more  rigid  or 
more  moderate  doctrines,  and  by  the  various  modes  in 
which  it  had  been  Cromwell's  policy  to  injure  their  re- 
spectability, and  curb  their  power.  But  the  Presbyteri- 
an interert  was  still  very  strong  in  Scotland.  It  entirely 
occupfd  the  Western  counties,  had  a  large  share  of  in- 
fluence in  the  south  and  midland  provinces,  and  was  only 
irff  rior  in  the  northern  shires,  where  the  Episcopal  inter- 
est always  prevailed. 

The  Presbyterian  church  was  sufficiently  alive  to  their 
own  interest  and  that  of  their  body  ;  for  they  had  sent 
f  Monies  army  ere  it  had  reached  London,  an  agent  or 


IN    SCOTLAND. 

commissioner >  to  take  care  of  the  affairs  of  the  Scottish 
Church  in  any  revolution  which  should  take  place  in  con- 
sequence of  the  General's  expedition. 

This  acpnt  was  James  Sharpe,  famous  for  his  life,  and 
still  more  for  his  deplorable  death.  At  this  time  he  was 
•'i  man  competently  learned,  bold,  active,  and  ambitious 
displaying  much  seal  for  the  interest  of  the  Church,  and 
b8H.£  certainly  by  no  means  negligent  of  his  own.  This 
."YIa>i3r  James  Sharpe  quickly  found,  while  at  London, 
:i  at  there  was  little  purpose  of  establishing  the  Presbyte- 
'/an  religion  in  Scotland.  It  is  true,  that  King  Charles 
nad,  on  his  former  expedition  into  Scotland,  deliberately 
accepted  and  sworn  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
the  principal  object  of  which  was  the  establishment  of 
Presbytery  of  the  most  rigid  kind.  It  was  also  true,  that 
the  Earl  of  Lauderdale,  who,  both  from  his  high  talents, 
and  from  the  long  imprisonment  which  he  had  sustained 
ever  since  the  battle  of  Worcester,  had  a  peculiar  title  to 
be  consulted  on  Scottish  affairs,  strongly  advised  the 
King  to  suffer  his  northern  subjects  to  retain  possession 
of  their  darling  form  of  worship  ;  and  though  he  endea- 
voured to  give  this  advice  in  the  manner  most  agreeable 
to  the  King,  ridiculing  bitterly  the  pedantry  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  the  uses  made  of  the  Covenant,  and  in  so  far 
gratifying  and  amusing  the  King,  still  he  returned  to  the 
point,  that  the  Covenant  and  Presbyterian  discipline  ought 
not  to  be  removed  from  Scotland,  while  the  people  con- 
tinued so  partial  to  them.  They  should  be  treated,  he 
thought,  like  froward  children,  whom  their  keepers  do 
not  vex  by  struggling  to  wrest  from  them  an  unfitting 
plaything,  but  quietly  wait  to  withdraw  it  when  sleep  or 
satiety  makes  it  indifferent  to  them. 

But  the  respect  due  to  the  King's  personal  engage- 
ment, as  well  as  the  opinion  thus  delivered  by  this  world- 
ly-wise nobleman,  were  strongly  contested  by  those  Cav- 
nliers  who  professed  absolute  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the 
King,  and  affected  to  form  their  political  opinions  on  those 
of  Montrose.  They  laid  upon  the  Presbyterian  Church 


MIDDLETOlf    MADK 

the  whole  blame  of  the  late  rebellion,  and  contended  thai 
the  infamous  transaction  of  delivering  up  Charles  the 
First  to  England,  was  the  act  of  an  army  guided  by 
Presbyterian  counsels.  In  short,  they  imputed  to  the 
Church  of  Scotland  the  whole  original  guilt  of  the  war, 
and  though  it  was  allowed  that  they  at  length  joined  the 
Royal  cause,  it  was  immediately  said  that  their  accessior 
only  took  place  when  they  were  afraid  of  being  deprived 
of  their  power  over  men's  consciences,  by  Cromwell  and 
his  independent  schismatics.  The  King  was  then  re- 
minded, that  he  had  been  received  by  the  Presbyterians 
less  as  their  Prince  than  as  their  passive  tool  and  engine, 
whom  they  determined  to  indulge  in  nothing  save  the 
name  of  a  Sovereign  ;  and  that  his  taking  the  Covenant 
had  been  undera  degree  of  moral  restraint,  which  ren- 
dered it  as  little  binding  as  if  imposed  by  personal  vio- 
lence. Lastly,  he  was  assured  that  the  whole  people  of 
Scotland  were  now  so  much  delighted  with  his  happy 
restoration,  that  the  moment  was  highly  favourable  for 
any  innovation  either  in  church  or  state,  which  might 
place  the  crown  firmer  on  his  head  ;  that  no  change 
could  be  so  important  as  the  substitution  of  Episcopacy 
for  Presbytery  ;  and  that  the  opportunity,  if  lost,  might 
never  return. 

The  King  himself  had  personal  reasons,  though  they 
ought  not  to  have  entered  into  such  a  discussion,  for  re- 
collecting with  disgust  the  affronts  and  rigorous  treatment 
which  he  had  received  from  the  Presbyterian  leaders, 
before  the  battle  of  Dunbar  had  diminished  their  power. 
He  had  then  adopted  a  notion  that  Presbytery  was  not  a 
religion  "  for  a  gentleman,"  and  he  now  committed  to 
Lord  Middleton,  who  was  to  be  his  High  Commissioner 
and  representative  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  full  powers 
to  act  in  the  matter  of  altering  the  national  religious  es- 
tablishment to  the  Episcopal  model,  as  soon  as  he  should 
think  proper. 

This  determination  was  signing  the  doom  of  Presby- 
tery as  far  as  Charles  could  do  so,  for  Middleton,  though 
once  in  the  service  of  the  Covenanting  Parliament,  and 


HIGH    COMMISSIONER.  7 

as  such  opposed  to  Montrose,  by  whom  he  was  beaten  at 
the  Bridge  of  Dee,  had  afterwards  been  Major-General 
of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's  ill-fated  army,  which  was  de- 
stroyed at  Uttoxeter  in  1 648,  and  ever  since  that  period 
had  fought  bravely,  though  unsuccessfully,  in  the  cause 
of  Charles,  maintaining  at  the  same  time  the  tenets  of 
the  most  extravagant  Royalism.  He  was  a  good  soldier, 
but  in  other  respects  a  man  of  inferior  talents,  who  had 
lived  the  life  of  an  adventurer,  and  who,  in  enjoying  the 
height  of  fortune  which  he  had  attained,  was  determined 
to  indulge  without  control  all  his  favourite  propensities. 
These  were,  unhappily,  of  a  coarse  and  scandalous  na- 
ture. The  Covenanters  had  assumed  an  exterior  of 
strict  demeanour  and  precise  morality,  and  the  Cavaliers, 
in  order  to  show  themselves  their  opposites  in  every  re- 
spect, gave  into  the  most  excessive  indulgences  in  wine 
and  revelry,  and  conceived  that  in  doing  so  they  showed 
their  loyalty  to  the  King,  and  their  contempt  of  what  they 
termed  the  formal  hypocrisy,  of  his  enemies.  Their 
Parliament,  when  -they  met,  were  generally,  many  of 
them,  under  the  influence  of  wine,  and  they  were  more 
than  once  obliged  to  adjourn,  because  the  Royal  Com- 
missioner was  too  intoxicated  to  behave  properly  in  the 
chair. 

While  the  Parliament  were  in  this  jovial  humour,  they 
failed  not  to  drive  forward  the  schemes  of  the  Commis- 
sioner Middleton,  and  of  the  more  violent  Royalists,  with 
a  zeal  which  was  equally  imprudent  and  impolitic.  At 
once,  and  by  a  single  sweeping  resolution,  they  annulled 
and  rescinded  every  statute  and  ordinance  which  had 
been  made  by  those  holding  the  supreme  authority  in 
Scotland  since  the  commencement  of  the  civil  wars  ;  al- 
though in  doing  so,  they  set  aside  many  laws  useful  to 
the  subjects,  many  which  had  received  the  personal  as- 
sent of  the  Sovereign,  and  some  that  were  entered  into 
expressly  for  his  defence,  and  the  acknowledgment  and 
protection  of  his  right.  By  a  subsequent  act,  the  whole 
Presbyterian  church  government  was  destroyed,  and  the 
Episcopal  institutions,  to  which  the  nation  had  shown 


MEASURES    FOR    THE 

themselves  so  adverse,  were  rashly  and  precipitately  es- 
tablished. Mr.  James  Sharpe,  who  had  yielded  to  the 
high  temptations  held  out  to  him,  was  named  Lord  Bishop 
of  Saint  Andrews,  and  Primate  of  Scotland,  and  other 
persons,  either  ancient  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
or  new  converts  to  the  doctrines  which  seemed  a  sure 
road  to  preferment,  were  appointed  Prelates,  with  seats  in 
Parliament,  and  great  influence  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation. 

It  may  seem  wonderful  that  such  great  changes,  and 
m  a  matter  so  essential,  should  have  been  made  without 
more  violent  opposition.  But  the  general  joy  at  rinding 
themselves  delivered  from  the  domination  of  England  ; 

O  7 

the  withdrawing  the  troops,  and  abandoning  the  citadels 
by  which  Cromwell  had  ruled  them,  as  a  foreign  con- 
queror governs  a  subdued  country  ;  and  the  pleasure  of 
enjoying  once  more  their  own  Parliament  under  the  au- 
thority of  their  native  prince,  had  a  great  effect,  amid  the 
first  tumult  of  joy,  in  reconciling  the  minds  of  the  Scot- 
tish people  to  the  change  even  of  the  form  of  religion, 
when  proposed  and  carried  through  as  the  natural  con- 
sequences (it  was  pretended)  of  the  restoration  of  royal 
power. 

The  Scottish  nobility,  and  many  of  the  gentry,  espe- 
cially the  younger  men,  had  long  resented  the  interference 
of  the  Presbyterian  preachers,  in  searching  out  scandals 
and  improprieties  within  the  bosoms  of  families  ;  and  this 
right,  which  the  clergy  claimed  and  exercised,  becair  e 
more  and  more  intolerable  to  those  who  were  disposed  to 
adopt  the  gay  and  dissolute  manners  which  distinguished 
the  Cavaliers  of  England,  and  who  regarded  with  re- 
sentment the  interference  and  rebukes  with  which  the 
Presbyterian  clergy  claimed  the  right  of  checking  their 
career  of  pleasure. 

The  populace  of  the  towns  were  amused  with  proces- 
sions, largesses,  free  distribution  of  liquor,  and  such  like 
marks  of  public  rejoicing,  by  which  they  are  generally 
attracted.  And  I  cannot  help  mentioning  as  remarka- 
ble, that  upon  23d  April,  1661,  Jenn)  Geddes,  the  very 


INTRODUCTION    OF    EPISCOPACY.  9 

wmrin  who  had  given  the  first  signal  of  civil  broil,  by 
throwing  her  stool  at  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh's  head,  when 
he  read  the  service-book  on  the  memorable  23d  July, 
1637,  showed  her  conversion  to  loyalty  by  contributing 
the  materials  of  her  green-stall,  her  baskets,  shelves" 
forms,  and  even  her  own  wicker-chair,  to  augment  a  bon- 
fire kindled  in  honour  or  his  Majesty's  coronation,  and 
the  proceedings  of  his  Parliament. 

There  were  many,  however,  in  Scotland,  who  were 
dJferontly  affected  by  the  hasty  proceedings  of  Middle- 
ton  and  his  jovial  Parliament,  of  whose  sentiments  I  will 
have  much  to  say  hereafter. 

The  greatest  evil  to  be  apprehended  from  the  King's 
return,  was  the  probability  that  he  might  be  disposed °to 
distinguish  the  more  especial  enemies  of  himself  and  his 
father,  and  perpetuate  the  memory  of  former  injuries  and 
quarrels,  by  taking  vengeance  for  them.  He  had  indeed 
published  a  promise  of  indemnity  and  of  oblivion,  for  all 
offences  during  the  civil  war,  against  his  own  or  his  fath- 
er's person.  But  this  proclamation  bore  an  exception 
of  such  persons  as  Parliament  should  point  out  as  espe- 
cially deserving  of  punishment.  Accordingly,  those  who 
had  been  actively  concerned  in  the  death,  or  as  it  may 
well  be  termed,  the  murder  of  Charles  I.,  were,  with  one 
or  two  others,  who  had  been  peculiarly  violent  during  the 
late  times,  excepted  from  pardon  ;  and  although  but  fow 
were  actually  executed,  yet  it  had  been  better  perhaps  to 
have  spared  several  even  of  the  most  obnoxious  class. 
But  that  is  a  question  belonging  to  English  history.  In 
order  that  Scotland  might  enjoy  the  benefit  of  similar 
examples  of  severity,  it  was  resolved  also  to  bring  to  trial 
some  of  the  most  active  persons  there. 

Among  these,  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  whom  we  have 
so  often  mentioned,  was  by  far  the  most  considerable. 
He  had  repaired  to  London  on  the  Restoration,  hoping 
to  make  interest  with  the  King,  but  was  instantly  arrested, 
and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and  afterwards  sent  down 
to  Scotland  to  undergo  a  trial,  according  to  the  laws  of 
that  countrv.  There  was  a  strong  desire,  on  the  part  of 


10  TRIAL    AND    EXECUTION    OF    THE 

the  Cavalier  party,  that  Argyle  should  be  put  to  death 
in  revenge  for  the  execution  of  Montrose,  .o  whom  you 
must  remember  he  had  been  a  deadly  and  persevering 
enemy.  Undoubtedly  he  had  been  guilty  of  much  cruel- 
ty in  suppressing  the  Royalist  party  in  the  Highlands  ; 
and  had  probably  been  privately  accessary  to  Montrose's 
tragical  fate,  though  he  seemed  to  hold  aloof  from  the 
councils  held  on  the  subject.  But  then  it  was  greatly 
too  late  to  call  him  into  judgment  for  these  things.  The 
King,  when  he  came  to  Scotland  after  Montrose's  execu- 
tion, had  acknowledged  all  that  was  done  against  him  as 
good  service,  had  entered  the  gate  of  Edinburgh,  over 
which  the  features  of  his  faithful  general  were  blackening 
in  the  sun,  and  received,  in  such  circumstances,  the  at- 
tendance and  assistance  of  Argyle,  as  of  a  faithful  and 
deserving  subject.  Nay,  besides  all  this,  which  in  effect 
implied  a  pardon  for  Argyle's  past  offences,  the  Marquis 
was  protected  by  the  general  Act  of  Rem'ssion,  granted 
by  Charles  in  1651,  for  all  state  offences  committed  be- 
fore that  period. 

Sensible  of  the  weight  of  this  defence,  the  Crown 
Council  and  Judges  searched  anxiously  for  some  evidence 
of  Argyle's  having  communicated  with  the  English  army 
subsequently  to  1651.  The  trial  was  long  protracted, 
and  the  accused  was  about  to  be  acquitted  for  want  of 
testimony  to  acts  of  more  importance  than  that  compul- 
sory submission  which  the  conquering  Englishmen  de- 
manded from  all,  and  which  no  one  had  the  power  to 
refuse.  But  just  when  the  Marquis  was  about  to  be  dis- 
charged, a  knock  was  heard  at  the  door  of  the  court,  and 
a  despatch  just  arrived  from  London  was  handed  to  the 
Lord  Advocate.  As  it  was  discovered  that  the  name  ol 
the  messenger  was  Campbell,  it  was  concluded  that  he 
bore  the  pardon,  or  remission,  of  the  Marquis  j  but  the 
contents  were  very  different,  being  certain  letters  which 
had  been  written  by  Argyle  to  General  Monk,  when  the 
latter  was  acting  Cromwell,  in  which  he  naturally  endeav- 
oured to  gain  the  general's  good  opinion,  by  expressing 
a  zeal  for  the  English  interest,  then  -headed  and  managed 


MARQUIS    OF    ARGYLE.  11 

by  his  correspondent.  Monk,  it  seems,  had  not  intended 
to  produce  these  letters,  if  other  matter  had  occurred 
to  secure  .Argyle's  condemnation,  desirous,  doubtless,  to 
fcvoid  the  ignominy  of  so  treacherous  an  action  ;  yet  he 
resolved  to  send  them,  that  they  might  be  produced  in 
evidence  rather  than  that  the  accused  should  be  acquit- 
ted. This  transaction  leaves  a  deep  blot  on  the  charac- 
ter of  the  restorer  of  the  English  monarchy. 

These  letters,  so  faithlessly  brought  forward,  were  re- 
ceived as  full  evidence  of  the  Marquis's  active  compli- 
ance with  the  English  enemy  ;  and  being  found  guilty, 
though  only  of  doing  that  which  no  man  in  Scotland  dared 
refuse  to  do  at  the  time,  he  received  sentence  of  death 
by  beheading. 

As  Argyle  rose  from  his  knees,  on  which  he  had  re- 
ceived the  sentence,  he  said,  "  This  reminds  me,  that  I 
was  the  first  to  adorn  the  head  of  his  Majesty  with  a 
crown,  (meaning  at  the  coronation  at  Scone,)  and  this  is 
my  requital.  But  may  God  give  him  a  crown  of  glory  !" 

He  faced  death  with  a  courage  which  other  passages 
of  his  life  had  not  prepared  men  to  expect,  for  he  was 
generally  esteemed  to  be  of  a  timorous  disposition.  On 
the  scaffold,  he  told  a  friend  that  he  felt  himself  capable 
of  braving  death  like  a  Roman,  but  he  preferred  submit- 
ting to  it  with  the  patience  of  a  Christian.  The  rest  ol 
his  behaviour  made  his  words  good  :  and  thus  died  the 
celebrated  Marquis  of  Argyle,  so  important  a  person 
during » this  melancholy  time.  He  was  called  by  the 
Highlanders  Gillespie  Grumach,  or  the  Grim,  from  an 
obliquity  in  his  eyes,  which  gave  a  sinister  expression  to 
his  countenance.  The  Marquis's  head  replaced  on  the 
lower  of  the  tolbooth  that  of  Montrose,  his  formidable 
enemy,  whose  scattered  limbs  were  now  assembled,  and 
committed  with  much  pomp  to  an  honourable  grave. 

John  Swinton,  of  Swinton,  representative  of  a  family 
which  is  repeatedly  mentioned  in  the  preceding  series  oi 
these  tales,  was  destined  to  share  Argyle's  fate.  He  had 
vaken  the  side  of  Cromwell  very  early  after  the  battle  oi 
D unbar,  and  it  was  by  his  counsels,  and  those  of  Lock- 


*2  TRIAL    OF    JUDGE    SWINTOV. 

hart  of  Lee,  that  the  Usurper  chiefly  managed  t.ie  affairs 
of  Scotland.  He  was,  therefore,  far  more  deeply  en- 
gaged in  compliances  with  Cromwell  than  the  Marquis  of 
\rgyle,  though  less  obnoxious  in  other  respects.  Swin- 
ton  was  a  man  of  acute  and  penetrating  judgment,  and 
great  activity  of  mind  ;  yet,  finding  himself  beset  with 
danger,  and  sent  down  to  Scotland  in  the  same  ship  wiih 
Argyle,  he  chose,  from  conviction,  or  to  screen  himself 
from  danger,  to  turn  Quaker.  As  he  was  determined 
that  his  family  should  embrace  the  same  faith,  his  eldest 
son,  when  about  to  rise  in  the  morning,  was  surprised  to 
see  that  his  laced  scarlet  coat,  his  rapier,  and  other  parts 
of  a  fashionable  young  gentleman's  dress  at  the  time, 
were  removed,  and  that  a  plain  suit  of  grey  cloth,  with  a 
slouched  hat,  without  loop  or  button,  was  laid  down  by 
his  bed-side.  He  could  hardly  be  prevailed  on  to  as- 
sume this  simple  habit. 

His  father,  on  the  contrary,  seemed  entirely  to  have 
humbled  -himself  to  the  condition  he  had  assumed  ;  and 
when  he  appeared  at  the  bar  in  the  plain  attire  of  his  new- 
sect,  he  declined  to  use  any  of  .the  legal  pleas  afforded 
by  the  act  of  indemnity,  or  otherwise,  but  answered  ac- 
cording to  his  new  religious  principles  of  non-resistance, 
that  it  was  true  he  had  been  guilty  of  the  crimes  charged 
against  him,  and  many  more,  but  it  was  when  he  was  in 
the  gall  of  wickedness  and  bonds  of  iniquity  ;  and  that 
now,  being  called  to  the  light,  he  acknowledged  his  past 
errors,  and  did  not  refuse  to  atone  for  them  with  his  life. 
The  mode  of  his  delivery  was  at  once  so  dignified  and 
so  modest,  and  the  sight  of  a  person  who  had  enjoyed 
great  po-ver.  placed  under  such  altered  circumstances, 
appe?rs  to  have  «o  much  affected  the  Parliament  before 
whom  he  stood,  ihav  his  life  was  spared,  though  he  was 
impoverished  by  forteuire  and  confiscation.  The  people 
in  his  own  country  said,  that  if  Swinton  had  not  trembled, 
he  would  not  have  quaked  ;  but  notwithstanding  this  pun, 
his  conversation  seerns  to  have  been  perfectly  sincere. 
It  iz  sale1,  ihat  he  had  a  principal  share  in  converting  to 
the  oj  inioiis  of  the  Friends,  the  celebrated  Robert  Bar- 


TRIAL    OF    THE    EAKL    JF   ARGTLE.  13 

clay,  who  afterwards  so  well  defended  their  cause  in  the 
"  Apology  for  the  people  called,  in  scorn,  Quakers." 
Svvinton  remained  a  member  of  their  congregation  till  his 
death,  and  was  highly  esteemed  among  them. 

The  escape  of  Judge  Swinton  might  be  accounted  al- 
most miraculous,  for  those  who  followed  him  through  the 
same  reign,  although  persons  chiefly  of  inferior  note,  ex- 
perienced no  clemency.  Johnstone  of  Warriston,  exe- 
uted  for  high  treason,  was  indeed  a  man  of  rank  and  a 
lawyer,  who  had  complied  with  all  the  measures  of  Crom- 
well and  of  the  following  times.  But  it  seems  petty  ven- 
geance which  selected,  as  subjects  for  capital  punishment, 
Mr.  Guthrie,  a  clergyman,  who  had  written  a  book  imput- 
ing the  wrath  of  Heaven  against  Scotland,  to  the  sins  ot 
Charles  I.  and  his  house,  and  a  man  called  Govan,  merely 
because  he  had  been  the  first  to  bring  to  Scotland  the 
news  of  Charles's  death,  and  had  told  it  in  terms  of  ap- 
probation. 

An  act  of  oblivion  was  at  length  passed  ;  but  it  con- 
tained a  fatal  clause,  that  those  who  might  be  entitled  to 
plead  the  benefit  of  it,  should  be  liable  to  certain  fines,  in 
proportion  to  their  estates.  The  imposition  of  those  fines 
was  remitted  to  a  committee  of  Parliament,  who  secretly 
accepted  large  bribes  from  those  who  were  the  most  guilty, 
and  inflicted  severe  penalties  on  such  as  were  compara- 
tively innocent. 

'  A  transaction  of  a  still  more  daring  character,  shows  the 
rapacious  and  reckless  character  of  the  commissioner 
Middleton  in  the  strongest  light. 

The  Marquis  of  Argyle,  as  I  have  already  said,  had 
been  executed,  and  his  son  succeeded  to  the  title  of  Earl 
Argyle  only.  He  had  repaired  to  London,  in  order  to 
make  some  interest  at  court,  and  had  been  persuaded  that 
some  of  the  minions  of  Lord  Clarendon,  then  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  would,  for  a  thousand  pounds,  undertake  to  pro- 
cure for  him  that  minister's  patronage  and  favour.  Argyle 
upon  this  wrote  a  confidential  letter  to  Lord  Duffies,  iy 
whirl'  he  told  him,  that  providing  he  could  raise  a  tliou- 


14  ACT    OF    CONFORM  IT  V. 

sand  pounds,  he  would  be  able  to  obtain  the  protection  oj 
the  English  minister  ;  that  in  such  a  case  he  trusted  the 
present  would  prove  a  gowk  storm;*  and  after  some 
other  depreciating  expressions  concerning  the  prevailing 
party  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  he  added,  that  "  then  the 
King  would  see  their  tricks." 

This  letter  fell  into  the  hands  of  Middleton,  who  de- 
termined, that  for  expressions  so  innocent  and  simple,  be- 
ing in  fact  the  natural  language  of  a  rival  courtier,  Argyle 
should  be  brought  to  trial  for  leasing-making  ;  a  crime, 
the  essence  of  which  consisted  in  spreading  abroad  false- 
hoods, tending  to  sow  dissension  between  the  King  and 
the  people.  On  this  tyrannical  law,  which  had  been  raked 
up  on  purpose,  but  which  never  could  have  been  intended 
to  apply  to  a  private  letter,  Argyle  was  condemned  to  lose 
his  head,  and  forfeit  his  estate.  But  the  account  of  such 
a  trial  and  sentence  for  a  vague  expression  of  ill-humour, 
struck  Charles  and  his  Privy  Council  with  astonishment 
when  it  reached  England,  and  the  Chancellor,  Clarendon, 
was  the  first  to  exclaim  in  the  king's  presence,  that  did  he 
think  he  lived  in  a  country  where  such  gross  oppression 
could  be  permitted,  he  would  get  out  of  his  Alajesty's 
dominions  as  last  as  the  gout  would  permit  him.  An  or- 
der was  sent  down  discharging  the  execution  of  Argyle, 
who  was  nevertheless  detained  prisoner,  until  the  end  of 
Middleton's  government, — a  severe  penalty  for  imputing 
tricks  to  the  royal  ministry.  He  was  afterwards  restored 
to  his  liberty  and  estates,  to  become  at  a  later  period  a 
victim  to  similar  persecution. 

It  was  by  driving  on  the  alteration  of  Church  govern- 
ment in  Scotland,  that  Middleton  hoped  to  regain  the 
place  in  Charles's  favour,  and  Clarendon's  good  opinion, 
which  he  had  lost  by  his  excesses  and  severity.  A  gen- 
eral act  of  uniformity  was  passed  for  enforcing  the  ob- 
servances of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  it  was  followed 
up  by  an  order  of  council  of  the  most  violent  character, 
framed,  it  is  said,  during  the  heat  of  a  drunken  revel  a\ 

*  A  short  storm,  such  as  comi-s  in  the  spring,  (he  srasmi  ol  tlw»   cackoc* 
Whirl)  (lie  Scotch  rail  the  Gowk. 


ACT    OF    CONFORMITY.  15 

Glasgow.  This  furious  mandate  commanded,  that  all 
ministers  who  had  not  received  a  presentation  from  their 
lay  patrons,  and  spiritual  induction  into  their  livings  from 
the  prelates,  should  be  removed  from  them  by  military 
force,  if  necessary.  All  their  parishioners  were  discharg- 
ed from  attending  upon  the  ministry  of  such  noncon- 
formists, or  acknowledging  them  as  clergymen.  This 
was  at  one  stroke  displacing  all  Presbyterian  ministers 
who  might  scruple  at  once  to  turn  Episcopalians. 

It  appeared  by  this  rash  action,  that  Middleton  enter- 
tained an  opinion  that  the  ministers,  however  attached  to 
Presbyterianism,  would  submit  to  the  Episcopal  model, 
rather  than  lose  their  livings,  which  were  the  only  means 
most  of  them  had  for  the  support  of  themselves  and  fam- 
ilies. But  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  commission- 
ers, about  three  hundred  and  fifty  ministers  resigned  their 
churches  without  hesitation,  and  determined  to  submit  to 
the  last  extremity  of  poverty,  rather  than  enjoy  comfort 
at  the  price  of  renouncing  the  tenets  of  their  Church.  In 
the  north  parts  of  Scotland,  in  the  midland  counties,  and 
along  the  eastern  side  of  the  Borders,  many  or  most  of 
the  clergy  conformed.  But  the  Western  shires,  where 
Presbytery  had  been  ever  most  flourishing,  were  almost 
entirely  deprived  of  their  pastors  :  and  the  result  was, 
that  a  number  equal  to  one-third  of  the  whole  parish  min- 
isters of  Scotland,  were  at  once  expelled  from  their  liv- 
ings, and  the  people  deprived  of  their  instructions. 

The  congregations  of  the  exiled  preachers  were  strong- 
ly affected  by  this  sweeping  change,  and  by  the  fate  of 
their  clergymen.  Many  of  the  latter  had,  by  birth  or 
marriage,  relations  and  connexions  in  the  parishes  from 
which  they  were  summarily  banished,  and  they  had  all 
been  the  zealous  instructors  of  the  people  in  religion,  and 
often  their  advisers  in  secular  matters  also.  It  was  not  ir 
na'ure  that  their  congregations  should  have  seen  them  with 
indiiFerence  suddenly  reduced  from  decent  comfort  to  in- 
digence, and  submitting  to  it  with  patience,  rather  than 
sacrifice  their  conscientious  scruples  to  their  interest.  Ac- 


16  BURNING    OF    THE    COVENANT. 

cordingly,  they  showed,  in  almost  every  case,  the  deepest 
sympathy  with  their  distresses. 

The  cause  also  for  which  the  clergy  suffered,  was  not 
indifferent  to  the  laity.  It  is  true,  the  consequences  of  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant  had  been  so  fatal,  that  at 
the  time  of  the  Restoration  none  but  a  few  high-flying  and 
rigid  Presbyterians  would  have  desired  the  re-establish- 
ment of  that  celebrated  engagement.  It.  depended  only 
on  the  temper  and  moderation  of  the  court,  to  have  re- 
duced what  was  once  the  idol  of  all  true  Presbyterians, 
to  the  insignificance  of  an  old  almanack,  as  it  has  been 
termed  by  the  Independents.  But  there  was  great  dif- 
ference between  suffering  the  Covenant  to  fall  into  neg- 
lect, as  containing  doctrines  too  highly  pitched  and  read- 
ily susceptible  of  misrepresentation,  and  in  complying  with 
the  government  by  ridiculing  as  absurd,  and  renouncing 
as  odious,  a  document,  which  had  been  once  so  much 
respected. 

The  Parliament,  however,  commanded  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  to  be  burnt  at  the  Cross  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  elsewhere,  with  every  mark  of  dishonour  ; 
while  figures,  dressed  up  to  resemble  Western  Whiga- 
mores,  as  they  were  called,  were  also  committed  to  the 
flames,  to  represent  a  burning  of  Presbyterianism  in  effi- 
gy. But  as  those  who  witnessed  these  proceedings,  could 
not  but  recollect,  at  the  same  time,  that  upon  its  first  being 
formed,  the  same  Covenant  had  been  solemnly  sworn  to 
by  almost  all  Scotland,  with  weeping  eyes,  and  uplifted 
hands,  and  had  been  solemnly  taken  by  the  King  himself, 
and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  nobility,  including  the 
present  ministers — it  was  natural  they  should  feel  invol- 
untary respect  for  that  which  once  appeared  so  sacred 
to  themselves,  or  to  their  fathers,  and  feel  the  unnecessa- 
ry insults  directed  against  it  as  a  species  of  sacrilege. 

The  oaths,  also,  which  imposed  on  every  person  in  pub- 
uc  office  the  duty  of  renouncing  the  Covenant,  as  an  un- 
Jawful  engagement,  was  distressing  to  the  consciences  of 
many,  particularly  of  the  lower  class  ;  and,  in  general, 
'.he  efforts  made  to  render  the  Covenant  odious  and  cot: 


THE    CURATES.  ? 

temptible  rather  revived  its  decaying  interest  with  the 
Scottish  jmblic. 

There  was  yet  another  aggravation  of  the  evils  conse- 
quent on  the  expulsion  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy.  So 
many  pulpits  became  vacant  at  once,  that  the  prelates  had 
no  means  of  filling  them  up  with  suitable  persons,  whose 
talents  and  influence  might  have  supplied  the  place  of  the 
exiled  preachers.  Numbers  of  half-educated  youths  were 
hastily  sent  for  from  the  northern  districts,  in  order  that 
they  might  become  curates,  which  was  the  term  used  in  the 
Scottish  Episcopal  Church  for  a  parish  priest,  although 
commonly  applied  in  England  to  signify  a  clergyman  hired 
to  discharge  the  duty  of  another.  From  the  unavoidable 
haste  in  filling  the  vacancies  in  the  Church,  these  raw 
students,  so  hastily  called  into  the  spiritual  vineyard,  had, 
according  to  the  historians  of  the  period,  as  little  morality 
as  learning,  and  still  less  devotion  than  either.  A  north- 
ern country  gentleman  is  said  to  have  cursed  the  scruples 
of  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  because  he  said,  ever  since 
they  threw  up  their  livings,  it  was  impossible  to  find  a  boy 
to  herd  cows,  they  had  all  gone  away  to  be  curates  in  the 
west. 

The  natural  consequences  of  all  these  adverse  circum- 
stances were,  that  the  Presbyterian  congregations  with- 
drew themselves  in  numbers  from  the  parish  churches, 
treated  the  curates  with  neglect  and  disrespect,  and,  seek- 
ing out  their  ancient  preachers  in  the  obscurity  to  which 
they  had  retired,  begged  and  received  from  them  the  re- 
ligious instruction  which  the  deprived  clergymen  still 
thought  it  their  duty  to  impart  to  those  who  needed  an:" 
desired  it,  in  despite  of  the  additional  severities  imposed 
by  the  government  upon  their  doing  so. 

The  Church  Courts,  or  Commission  Courts,  as  thev 
were  termed,  took  upon  them  to  find  a  remedy  for  the 
defection  occasioned  by  the  scruples  of  the  people.  Nine 
prelates,  and  thirty-five  commissioners  from  the  laity,  of 
whom  a  bishop,  with  four  assistants,  made  a  quorum,  were 
intrusted  with  the  power  of  enforcing  the  acts  for  the 


18  THE    EARL    OF    LAUDERDALE 

preservati  n  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  These  oppressive 
ecclesiastical  courts  were  held  wherever  there  was  a  com- 
plaint of  nonconformity  ;  and  they  employed  all  the  rig- 
ours of  long  imprisonment,  heavy  fines,  and  corporal 
punishment,  upon  those  who  either  abandoned  the  worship 
of  their  own  parish  church,  or  went  to  hear  the  doctrine 
of  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  whose  private  meetings  foi 
worship  were  termed  Conventicles. 

These  conventicles  were  at  first  held  in  private  houses, 
barns,  or  other  buidings,  as  was  the  case  in  England  ; 
where  (though  in  a  much  more  moderate  degree)  the 
general  conformity  of  the  church  was  also  enforced.  But 
as  such  meetings,  especially  if  numerously  attended,  were 
liable  to  be  discovered  and  intruded  upon  by  peace-offi- 
cers and  soldiers,  who  dispersed  them  rudely,  sometimes 
plundering  the  men  of  their  purses,  and  the  women  01 
their  cloaks  and  plaids,  the  Scottish  Presbyterians  had 
recourse  to  an  expedient  of  safety,  suggested  by  the  wild 
character  of  their  country,  and  held  these  forbidden  meet- 
ings in  the  open  air,  remote  alike  from  observation  and 
interruption,  in  wild,  solitary,  and  mountainous  places, 
where  it  was  neither  easy  to  find  them,  nor  safe  to  dis- 
turb them,  unless  the  force  which  assailed  them  was  con- 
siderable. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Privy  Council  doubled  their 
exertions  to  suppress,  or  rather  to  destroy,  the  whole  body 
of  nonconformists.  But  the  attention  of  the  English 
ministers  had  been  attracted  by  the  violence  of  their  pro- 
ceedings. Middleton  began  to  fall  into  disfavour  with 
Charles,  and  was  sent  as  governor  to  Tangier,  in  a  kind  f 
honourable  banishment,  where  he  lost  the  life  which  he 
had  exposed  to  so  many  dangers  in  battle,  by  a  fall  down 
a  staircase. 

Lauderdale,  who  succeeded  to  his  power,  had  n^uch 
more  talent.  He  was  ungainly  in  his  personal  appearance, 
being  a  big  man,  with  shaggy  red  hair,  coarse  features, 
and  a  tongue  which  seemed  too  large  for  his  mouth.  Bir 
te  possessed  a  great  portion  of  sense,  learning,  and  \vit 
lie-,  was  originally  zealous  for  the  Covenant,  and  his  ene 


COMES    INTO    POWER.  1 

mies  at  Court  had  pressed  forward  the  oaths  by  which  it 
was  to  be  renounced  with  the  more  eagerness,  that  the) 
hoped  Lauderdale  would  scruple  to  take  them  ;  but  he 
only  laughed  at  the  idea  of  their  supposing  themselves 
capable  of  forming  any  oath  which  could  obstruct  the 
progress  of  his  rise. 

Being  now  in  power,  he  distinctly  perceived  that  the 
violent  courses  adopted  were  more  likely  to  ruin  Scotland, 
than  to  establish  Episcopacy.  But  he  also  knew  that  he 
could  not  retain  the  power  he  had  obtained,  unless  by 
keeping  on  terms  with  Sharpe,  the  Primate  of  Scotland, 
and  the  other  bishops,  at  whose  instigation  these  wild 
measures  were  adopted  and  carried  on  ;  and  it  is  quite 
consistent  with  Lauderdale's  selfish  and  crafty  character, 
to  suppose  that  he  even  urged  them  on  to  farther  excess- 
es, in  order  that,  when  the  consequences  had  ruined  their 
reputation,  he  might  succeed  to  the  whole  of  that  power, 
of  which,  at  present,  the  prelates  had  a  large  share.  The 
severities  against  dissenters,  therefore,  were  continued  ; 
and  the  ruinous  fines  which  were  imposed  on  nonconform- 
ists, were  raised  by  quartering  soldiers  upon  the  delin- 
quents, who  were  entitled  to  have  lodging,  meat,  and  drink, 
in  their  houses,  and  forage  for  their  horses,  without  any 
payment,  till  the  fine  was  discharged.  These  men,  who 
knew  they  were  placed  for  the  purpose  of  a  punishment 
in  the  families  where  they  were  quartered,  took  care  to  be 
so  insolent  and  rapacious,  that  if  selling  the  last  article  he 
had  of  any  value  could  raise  money,  to  rid  him  of  these 
unwelcome  guests,  the  unfortunate  landlord  was  glad  to 
part  with  them  at  whatever  loss. 

The  principal  agents  in  this  species  of  crusade  against 
Calvinism,  were  the  soldiers  of  the  King's  horse-guards, 
a  body  raised  since  the  Restoration,  upon  the  plan  of  the 
French  household  troops,  the  privates  of  which  were  ac- 
counted gentlemen,  being  frequently  the  younger  sons  of 
men  of  some  pretension  to  family  ;  cavaliers  by  profession, 
accustomed  to  practise  the  debauchery  common  among 
the  dissolute  youth  of  the  period,  and  likely,  from  habit 
and  inclination,  to  be  a  complete  pest  and  torment  to  any 


20    SEVERITIES  AGAINST  NONCONFORMISTS. 

decent  house  in  which  they  might  be  quartered.  Oihtr 
regiments  of  horse,  upon  the  ordinary  establishment,  were 
raised  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  west  of  Scotland,  and  in  particular  Dumfriesshire; 
Ayrshire,  and  Galloway,  were  peculiarly  harassed,  as  being 
more  refractory  and  obstinate  than  any  others ;  for  which 
purpose  Sir  James  Turner  was  sent  thither  with  a  consid- 
erable party  of  troops,  and  full  commission  from  the 
Privy  Council,  to  impose  and  levy  fines,  and  inflict  all  the 
other  penalties,  for  enforcing  general  conformity.  Sir 
James  was  a  soldier  of  fortune,  who  had  served  under 
David  Lesley,  and  afterwards  in  the  army  of  Engagers, 
under  the  Duke  of  Hamilton.  He  was  a  man  of  some 
literature,  having  written  a  treatise  on  the  Art  of  War,  and 
some  other  works,  besides  his  own  Memoirs.  Neverthe- 
less, he  appears,  by  the  .account  he  gives  of  himself  in 
his  Memoirs,  to  have  been  an  unscrupulous  plunderer, 
and  other  authorities  describe  him  as  a  fierce  and  disso- 
lute character.  In  such  hands  the  powers  assigned  by  the 
commission  were  not  likely  to  slumber,  although  Sir  James 
assures  his  readers  that  he  never  extorted  above  one  half 
of  the  fine  imposed.  But  a  number  of  co-operating  cir- 
cumstances had  rendered  the  exercise  of  such  a  commis- 
sion less  safe  than  it  had  hitherto  been. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Conventicles — The  Pentland  Rising — Battle  of  Rullioii 
Green — The  Indulgence  granted — withdrawn — The 
Outlawed  Covenanters — tinned  Conventicles—Super* 
stition  of  the  Covenanters — Persecution  of  them — 
Adventure  of  Captain  Creichlon. 

WHEN  the  custom  of  holding  field  conventicles  was 
adopted,  it  had  the  effect  of  raising  the  minds  of  th  se 
who  frequented  (hern  to  a  higher  and  more  exalted  pitch 
of  enthusiasm.  The  aged  and  more  timid  could  hardly 


CONVENTICLES.  21 

engage  on  distant  expeditions  into  the  wild  mountains  anil 
the  moors,  and  the  greater  part  of  those  who  attended 
divine  worship  on  such  occasions,  were  robust  of  body, 
and  bold  of  spirit,  or  at  least  men  whose  imperfections  ol 
strength  and  courage  were  more  than  supplied  by  religious 
zeal.  The  view  of  the  rocks  and  hills  around  them, 
while  a  sight  so  unusual  gave  solemnity  to  their  acts  ol 
devotion,  encouraged  them  in  the  natural  thought  of  de- 
fending themselves  against  oppression,  amidst  the  fort- 
resses of  nature's  own  construction,  to  which  they  had 
repaired  to  worship  the  God  of  nature,  according  to  the 
mode  their  education  dictated  and  their  conscience  ac- 
knowledged.— The  recollection,  that  in  these  fastnesses 
their  fathers  had  often  found  a  safe  retreat  from  foreign 
invaders,  must  have  encouraged  their  natural  confidence, 
and  it  was  confirmed  by  the  success  with  which  a  stand  was 
sometimes  made  against  small  bodies  of  troops,  who  were 
occasionally  repulsed  by  the  sturdy  Whigs  whom  they 
attempted  to  disperse.  In  most  cases  of  this  kind  they 
behaved  with  moderation,  inflicting  no  further  penalty  upon 
such  prisoners  as  might  fall  into  their  hands,  than  detain- 
ing them  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  a  long  sermon.  Fanat- 
icism added  marvels  to  encourage  this  new-born  spirit  01 
resistance.  They  conceived  themselves  to  be  under  the 
immediate  protection  of  the  Power  whom  they  worship- 
ped, and  in  their  heated  state  of  mind  expected  even 
miraculous  interposition.  At  a  conventicle  held  on  one; 
of  the  Lomond  hills  in  Fife,  it  was  reported  and  believed 
that  an  angelic  form  appeared  in  the  air,  hovering  above 
the  assembled  congregation,  with  his  foot  advanced,  as  it 
in  the  act  of  keeping  watch  for  their  safety. 

On  the  whole,  the  idea  of  repelling  force  by  force,  and 
defending  themselves  against  the  attacks  of  the  soldiers, 
and  others  whc  assaulted  them,  when  employed  in  divine 
worship,  began  io  become  more  general  among  the  ha- 
rassed nonconformists.  For  this  purpose  many  of  the 
congregations  assembled  in  arms,  and  I  received  the  fol- 
lowing description  of  such  a  scene  from  a  lady  whose 
mother  had  repeatedly  been  present  on  such  occasions. 


22  TUB    TENTLAND    RISING. 

The  meeting  was  held  on  the  Eildon  Hills,  in  the  bo 
som  betwixt  two  of  the  three  conical  tops  which  form  the 
crest  of  the  mountain.  Trusty  sentinels  were  placed  on 
advanced  posts  all  around,  so  as  to  command  a  view  of 
the  country  -below,  and  give  the  earliest  notice  of  the 
approach  of  any  unfriendly  party.  The  clergyman  oc- 
cupied an  elevated  temporary  pulpit,  with  his  back  to  the 
wind.  There  were  few  or  no  males  of  any  quality  or 
distinction,  for  such  persons  could  not  escape  detection, 
and  were  liable  to  ruin  from  the  consequences.  But  many 
women  of  good  condition,  and  holding  the  rank  of  ladies, 
ventured  to  attend  the  forbidden  meeting,  and  were  al- 
lowed to  sit  in  front  of  the  assembly.  Their  side-saddles 
were  placed  on  the  ground  to  serve  for  seats,  and  their 
horses  were  tethered,  or  picquetted,  as  it  is  called,  in  the 
rear  of  the  congregation.  Before  the  females,  and  in  the 
interval  which  divided  them  from  the  tent,  or  temporary 
pulpit,  the  arms  of  the  men  present,  pikes,  swords,  and 
muskets,  were  regularly  piled  in  such  order  as  is  used  by 
soldiers,  so  that  each  man  might  in  an  instant  assume  his 
own  weapons.  When  scenes  of  such  a  kind  were  repeat- 
edly to  be  seen  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  while 
the  Government  relaxed  none  of  that  rigour  which  had 
thrown  the  nation  into  such  a  state,  it  was  clear  that  a 
civil  war  could  not  be  far  distant. 

It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1 666  that  the  severities  of  Sir 
James  Turner,  already  alluded  to,  seem  to  have  driven 
the  Presbyterians  of  the  west  into  a  species  of  despair, 
which  broke  out  into  insurrection.  Some  accounts  say, 
that  the  peasants  having  used  force  to  deliver  an  aged 
man,  whom  a  party  of  soldiers  were  forcing  to  prison,  in 
order  to  compel  payment  of  a  church  fine,  they  reflected 
upon  the  penalties  they  had  incurred  by  such  an  exploit, 
and  resolved  to  continue  in  arms,  and  to  set  the  Govern- 
ment at  defiance.  Another  account  affirms,  that  the  poor 
people  were  encouraged  to  take  up  arms  by  an  unknown 
person  calling  himself  Captain  Gray,  and  pretending  to 
have  orders  to  call  them  out  from  superior  persons,  whom 
he  did  not  name.  By  what  means  soever  they  were  first 


THE    PENTLAND    RISING.  23 

tised,  they  soon  assembled  a  number  of  peasants,  and 
narched  to  Dumfries  with  such  rapidity,  that  they  sur- 
prised Sir  James  Turner  in  his  lodgings,  and  seized  on  his 
papers  and  his  money.  Captain  Gray  took  possession  ol 
the  money,  and  left  the  party,  never  to  rejoin  them  ; 
having,  it  is  probable,  discharged  his  task,  when  he  had 
hurried  these  poor  ignorant  men  into  such  a  dangerous 
mutiny.  Whether  he  was  employed  by  some  hot-headed 
Presbyterian,  who  thought  the  time  favourable  for  an  in- 
surrection against  the  Prelates,  or  whether  by  Government 
themselves,  desirous  of  encouraging  an  insurrection  which, 
when  put  down,  might  afford  a  crop  of  fines  and  forfeit- 
ures, cannot  be  known. 

The  country  gentlemen  stood  on  their  guard  ;  and  none 
of  them  joined  the  insurgents  ;  but  a  few  of  the  most 
violent  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers  engaged  with  them. 
Two  officers  of  low  rank  were  chosen  to  command  so 
great  an  undertaking  ;  their  names  were  Wallace  and 
Learmont.  They  held  counsel  together,  whether  they 
should  put  Sir  James  Turner  to  death  or  not  ;  but  he 
represented  that,  severe  as  they  might  think  he  had  been, 
he  had  been  much  less  so  than  his  commission  and  in- 
structions required  and  authorized  ;  and  as,  upon  exam- 
ining his  papers,  he  was  found  to  have  spoken  the  truth, 
his  life  was  spared,  and  he  was  carried  with  them  as  a 
prisoner  or  hostage.  Being  an  experienced  soldier,  he 
wondered  to  see  the  accurate  obedience  of  these  poor 
peasants,  the  excellent  order  in  which  they  marched,  and 
their  attention  to  the  duties  of  outposts  and  sentinels. 
But,  probably,  no  peasant  of  Europe  is  sooner  able  to 
adapt  himself  to  military  discipline  than  the  Scotsman, 
who  is  usually  prudent  enough  to  consider,  that  it  is  only 
mutual  co-operation  and  compliance  with  orders,  which 
can  make  numbers  effectual. 

When  at  their  greatest  strength,  which  was  assembled 
upon  their  reaching  Lanark,  after  two  or  three  days'  wan- 
dering, the  insurgents  might  amount  to  three  thousand 
men.  They  issued  at  that  place  a  declaration,  which  bore 
that  they  acknowledged  the  King's  authority,  and  that 


24  THE    PENTLAKD    U1SING. 

the  arms  which  they  had  assumed  were  only  to  be  used 
in  self-defence.  But  as,  at  the  same  time,  they  renewed 
the  Covenant,  of  which  the  principal  ohject  was,  not  to 
obtain  for  Presbytery  a  mere  toleration,  but  a  triumphant 
superiority,  they  would  probably,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
have  extended  or  restricted  their  objects  as  success  or 
disaster  attended  their  enterprise. 

Meantime,  General  Dalziel,  commonly  called  Tom 
Dalziel,  a  remarkable  personage  of  those  times,  had 
marched  from  Edinburgh  at  the  head  of  a  small  body  oi 
regular  forces,  summoning  all  the  lieges  to  join  him,  on 
pain  of  being  accounted  traitors.  Dalziel  had  been  bred 
in  the  Russian  wars,  after  having  served  under  Montrose 
He  was  an  enthusiastic  Royalist,  and  would  never  shave 
his  beard  after  the  King's  death.  His  dress  was  other 
wise  so  different  from  what  was  then  the  mode,  that 
Charles  the  Second  used  to  accuse  him  of  a  plan  to  draw 
crowds  of  children  together,  that  they  might  squeeze  each 
other  to  death  while  they  gazed  on  his  singular  counte- 
nance and  attire.  He  was  a  man  of  fierce  and  passionate 
temper,  as  appears  from  his  once  striking  a  prisoner  on 
the  face,  with  the  hilt  of  his  dagger,  till  the  blood  sprung 
— an  unmanly  action,  though  he  was  provoked  by  the  lan- 
guage of  the  man,  who  called  the  General  "  a  Muscovian 
beast,  who  used  to  roast  men." 

This  ferocious  commander  was  advancing  from  Glas- 
gow to  Lanark,  when  he  suddenly  learned  that  the  insur- 
gents had  given  him  the  slip,  and  were  in  full  march  to- 
wards the  capital.  The  poor  men  had  been  deceived  into 
a  belief  that  West  Lothian  was  ready  to  rise  in  their  fa- 
vour, and  that  they  had  a  large  party  of  friends  in  the 
Metropolis  itself.  Under  these  false  hopes,  they  ap- 
proached as  far  as  Collision,  within  four  miles  of  Edin- 
burgh. Here  they  learned  that  the  city  was  fortified,  and 
cannon  placed  before  the  gates  ;  that  the  College  of  Jus- 
tice, which  can  always  furnish  a  large  body  of  serviceable 
men,  was  under  arms,  and,  as  their  Miformer  expressed  it, 
every  advocate  in  his  bandoliers.  They  learned  at  the 


BATTLE    OF    RULLION    GKEEN.  ?*.* 

same  time,  that  their  own  depressed  party  within  the  tcwn 
had  not  the  least  opportunity  or  purpose  of  rising. 

Discouraged  with  tiiese  news,  and  with  the  defection 
of  many  of  their  army,  Learmont  and  Wallace  drew 
back  their  diminished  forces  to  the  eastern  shoulder  of 
the  Pentland  Hills,  and  encamped  on  an  eminence  called 
Rullion  Green.  They  had  reposed  themselves  for  some 
hours,  when,  towards  evening,  they  observed  a  body  of 
horse  coming  through  the  mountains,  by  a  pass  leading 
from  the  west.  At  first  the  Covenanters  entertained  the 
flattering  dream  that  it  was  the  expected  reinforcement 
from  West  Lothian.  But  the  standards  and  kettle-drums 
made  it  soon  evident  that  it  was  the  vanguard  of  DalziePs 
troops,  which,  having  kept  the  opposite  skirts  of  the  Pent- 
land  ridge  till  they  passed  the  village  of  Currie,  had  there 
learned  the  situation  of  the  insurgents,  and  moved  in  quest 
of  them  by  a  road  through  the  hills. 

Dalziel  instantly  led  his  men  to  the  assault.  The  in- 
surgents behaved  with  courage.  They  twice  repulsed 
the  attack  of  the  Royalists.  But  it  was  renewed  by  a 
large  force  of  cavalry  on  the  insurgents'  right  wing,  which 
bore  down  and  scattered  a  handful  of  weaned  horse  who 
were  there  posted,  and  broke  the  ranks  of  the  infantry 
The  slaughter  in  the  field  and  in  the  chase  was  very  small, 
not  exceeding  fifty  men,  and  only  a  hundred  and  thirty 
were  made  prisoners.  The  King's  cavalry,  being  com- 
posed chiefly  of  gentlemen,  pitied  their  unfortunate  coun 
trymen,  and  made  little  slaughter  ;  but  many  were  slain 
by  the  country  people  in  the  neighbourhood,  who  were 
unfriendly  to  their  cause. 

About  twenty  of  the  prisoners  were  executed  as  rebels, 
many  of  them  being  put  to  the  torture.  This  was  prac- 
tised in  various  ways — sometimes  by  squeezing  the  fingers 
with  screws  called  thumbikens,  sometimes  by  the  boot,  a 
species  of  punishment  peculiar  to  Scotland.  It  consisted 
m  placing  the  leg  of  the  patient  in  a  veiy  strong  wooden 
case,  called  a  Boot,  arid,  driving  down  wedges  betweeu 

896 


26  EXECUTION    OF    HUGH    Nl'ltAIL. 

his  knee  and  the  frame,  by  which  the  limb  was  often 
crushed  and  broken. 

But  though  these  horrid  cruelties  could  tear  the  flesh 
and  crush  the  bones  of  the  unfortunate  sufferers,  it  could 
not  abate  their  courage.  Triumphing  in  the  cause  for 
which  they  died,  they  were  seen  at  the  place  of  execution 
contending  which  should  be  the  first  victim,  while  he  who 
obtained  the  sad  preference  actually  shouted  for  joy.  Most 
of  the  sufferers,  though  very  ignorant,  expressed  them- 
selves with  such  energy  on  the  subject  of  the  principles 
for  which  they  died,  as  had  a  strong  effect  on  the  multi- 
tude. But  a  youth,  named  Hugh  M'Kail,  comely  in  per- 
son, well  educated,  and  of  an  enthusiastic  character,  act- 
ed the  part  of  a  martyr  in  its  fullest  extent.  He  had  taken 
but  a  small  share  in  the  insurrection,  but  was  chiefly  ob- 
noxious for  a  sermon,  in  which  he  had  said,  that  the  peo- 
ple of  God  had  been  persecuted  by  a  Pharaoh  or  an  Ahab 
on  the  throne,  a  Haman  in  the  state,  and  a  Judas  in  the 
church  ;  words  which  were  neither  forgotten  nor  forgiven. 
He  was  subjected  to  extreme  torture,  in  order  to  wring 
from  him  some  information  concerning  the  causes  and 
purposes  of  the  rising  ;  but  his  leg  was  crushed  most 
cruelly  in  the  boot,  without  extracting  from  him  a  sigh  or 
sound  of  impatience.  Being  then  condemned  to  death, 
he  spoke  of  his  future  state  with  a  rapturous  confidence, 
and  took  leave  of  the  numerous  spectators  in  the  words  of 
a  dying  saint,  careless  of  the  present,  and  confident  in  his 
hopes  of  immortality. 

"  I  shall  speak  no  more  with  earthly  creatures,"  he 
said,  "  but  shall  enjoy  the  aspect  of  the  ineffable  Creator 
himself. — Farewell,  father,  mother,  and  friends — farewell, 
sun,  moon,  and  stars — farewell,  perishable  earthly  delights 
— and  welcome  those  which  are  everlasting — welcome, 
glory — welcome,  eternal  life — and  welcome,  death  !" 
There  was  not  a  dry  eye  among  the  spectators  of  his  ex- 
ecution ;  and  it  began  to  be  perceived  by  the  authors  of 
these  severities,  that  the  last  words  and  firm  conduct  of  this 
dying  man,  made  an  impression  on  the  populace  the  very 
reverse  of  what  they  desired.  After  this,  they  resorted 


THE    INDULGENCE.  27 

to  the  cruel  expedient  which  had  been  practised  when  the 
Royalist  followers  of  Montrose  were  executed,  and  caus- 
ed trumpets  to  be  sounded,  and  drums  beaten,  to  drown 
the  last  words  of  the  dying  men. 

The  vengeance  taken  for  the  Pentland  rising  was  not 
confined  to  these  executions  in  the  capital.  The  shires 
of  Galloway,  Ayr,  and  Dumfries,  were  subjected  to  mili- 
tary severities,  and  all  who  had  the  slightest  connexion 
with  the  rebellion  were  rigorously  harassed.  A  parly  of 
Ayrshire  gentlemen  had  gathered  together  for  the  purpose 
of  joining  the  insurgents,  but  had  been  prevented  from 
doing  so.  They  fled  from  the  consequences  of  their 
rashness,  yet  they  were  not  only  arraigned,  and  doom  of 
forfeiture  passed  against  them  in  their  absence,  but,  con- 
trary to  all  legal  usage,  the  sentence  was  put  in  execution 
without  their  being  heard  in  their  defence  ;  and  their  es- 
tates were  conferred  upon  General  Dalziel,  and  General 
Drumrnond,  or  retained  by  the  officers  of  state  to  enrich 
themselves. 

But  the  period  was  now  attained  which  Lauderdale 
aimed  at.  The  violence  of  the  government  in  Scotland  at 
length  attracted  the  notice  of  the  English  court ;  and 
wl>en  inquired  into,  was  found  much  too  gross  to  be  tol- 
erated. The  Primate  Sharpe  was  ordered  to  withdraw 
from  administration  ;  Lauderdale,  with  Tweedale,  Sir 
Robert  Murray,  and  the  Earl  of  Kincardine,  were  placed 
at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  it  was  determined,  by  afford- 
ing some  relief  to  the  oppressed  Presbyterians,  to  try  at 
least  the  experiment  of  lenity  towards  them. 

Such  of  the  ejected  clergy  as  had  not  given  any  par- 
ticular offence,  were  permitted  to  preach  in  vacant  par- 
ishes, and  even  received  some  encouragement  from  gov- 
ernment. This  was  termed  the  Indulgence.  Had  some 
such  measure  of  toleration  been  adopted  when  Presby- 
tery was  first  demolished,  it  might  have  been  the  means  of 
preventing  the  frequency  of  conventicles  :  but,  when  re- 
sorted to  in  despair,  as  it  were,  of  subduing  them  by  vio- 
lence, the  mass  of  discontented  Presbyterians  regarded 
accession  to  the  measure  as  a  dishonourable  accommoda- 


28  AKMF.IJ    CONVENTICLES 

lion  with  a  government  by  whom  they  had  been  oppressed. 
It  is  true,  the  gentry,  and  those  who  at  once  preferred 
Presbytery,  and  were  unwilling  to  suffer  in  their  worldly 
estate  by  that  preference,  embraced  this  opportunity  to 
hear  their  favourite  doctrines  without  risk  of  fine  and  im- 
prisonment. The  Indulged  clergy  were  also  men,  for  the 
most  part,  of  wisdom  and  learning,  who,  being,  unable  to 
vindicate  the  freedom  and  sovereignty  of  their  church, 
were  contented  to  preach  to  and  instruct  their  congrega- 
tions, and  discharge  their  duty  as  clergymen,  if  not  to  the 
utmost,  at  least  as  far  as  the  evil  times  permitted. 

But  this  modified  degree  of  zeal  by  no  means  gratified 
the  more  ardent  and  rigid  Covenanters,  by  whom  the 
stooping  to  act  under  the  Indulgence  was  accounted  a 
compromise  with  the  malignants — a  lukewarm  and  unac- 
ceptable species  of  worship,  resembling  salt  which  had 
lost  its  savour.  Many,  therefore,  held  the  Indulged  cler- 
gy as  a  species  of  king's  curates  ;  and  rather  than  listen 
to  their  doctrines,  which  they  might  have  heard  in  safety, 
followed  into  the  wilderness  those  bold  and  daring  preach- 
ers, whose  voices  thundered  forth  defiance  against  the 
mighty  of  the  earth.  The  Indulged  were  accused  of 
meanly  adopting  Erastian  opinions,  and  acknowledging 
the  dependence  and  subjection  of  the  Church  to  the  civil 
magistrate, — a  doctrine  totally  alien  from  the  character  of 
the  Presbyterian  religion.  The  elevated  wish  of  follow- 
ing the  religion  of  their  choice,  in  defiance  of  danger  and 
fear,  and  their  animosity  against  a  government  by  whom 
they  had  been  persecuted,  induced  the  more  zealous  Pres- 
byterians to  prefer  a  conventicle  to  their  parish  church  ; 
and  one  in  which  the  hearers  attended  in  arms  to  defend 
themselves,  to  a  more  peaceful  meeting,  composed  of  such 
as  only  proposed,  if  surprised,  to  save  themselves  by 
submission  or  flight.  Hence  tbese  conventicles  became 
frequent,  at  which  the  hearers  attended  with  weapons. 
The  romantic  and  dangerous  character  of  this  species  of 
worship  recommended  it  to  such  as  were  constitutionally 
bold  and  high-spirited  ;  and  there  were  others,  who,  from 
the  idle  spirit  belonging  to  youth,  liked  better  to  ramble 


ARMED    CONVENTICLES.  29 

through  the  country  as  the  life-guard  to  some  outlawed 
preacher,  than  to  spend  the  six  days  of  the  week  in  or- 
dinary labour,  and  attend  their  own  parish-church  on  the 
seventh,  to  listen  to  the  lukewarm  doctrine  qf  an  Indulg- 
ed minister. 

From  all  these  reasons,  the  number  of  armed  conven- 
ticles increased  ;  and  Lauderdale,  incensed  at  the  failure 
of  his  experiment,  increased  his  severity  against  them, 
while  the  Indulgence  was  withdrawn,  as  a  measure  inad- 
equate to  the  intended  purpose,  though,  perhaps,  it  chiefly 
failed  for  want  of  perseverance  on  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

As  if  Satan  himself  had  suggested  means  of  oppres- 
sion, Lauderdale  raked  up  out  of  oblivion  the  old  and  bar- 
barous laws  which  had  been  adopted  in  the  fiercest  times, 
and  directed  them  against  the  nonconformists,  especially 
those  who  attended  the  field  convemicies.  One  of  those 
laws  inflicted  the  highest  penalties  upon  persons  who  were 
intercommuned,  as  it  was  called— r-that  is,  outlawed  by 
legal  sentence.  The  nearest  relations  were  prohibited 
from  assisting  each  other,  the  wife  the  husband,  the  brother 
the  brother,  and  the  parent  the  son,  if  the  sufferers  had 
been  intercommuned.  The  government  of  this  cruel  time 
applied  these  ancient  and  barbarous  laws  to  the  outlawed 
Presbyterians  of  the  period,  and  thus  drove  them  alto- 
gether from  human  society.  In  danger,  want,  and  ne- 
cessity, the  inhabitants  of  the  wilderness,  and  expelled 
from  civil  intercourse,  it  is  no  wonder  that  we  find  many 
of  these  wanderers  avowing  principles  and  doctrines  hos- 
tile to  the  government  which  oppressed  them,  and  carrying 
their  resistance  beyond  the  bounds  of  mere  defence. 
There  were  instances,  though  less  numerous  than  might 
have  been  expected,  of  their  attacking  the  houses  of  the 
curates,  or  of  others  by  whose  information  they  had  beeo 
accused  of  nonconformity  ;  and  several  deaths  ensued  in 
those  enterprises,  as  well  as  in  skirmishes  with  the  military. 

Superstitious  notions  also,  the  natural  consequences  of 
an  uncertain,  melancholy,  and  solitary  life  among  the  deso- 


30  SUPERSTITION    OF    THE. 

late  glens  and  mountains,  mingled  with  the  intense  enthu- 
Fiasm  of  this  persecuted  sect.  Their  occasional  successes 
over  their  oppressors,  and  their  frequent  escapes  from  the 
pursuit  of  the  soldiery,  when  the  marksmen  missed  their 
aim,  or  when  a  sudden  mist  concealed  the  fugitives,  were 
imputed,  not  to  the  operation  of  those  natural  causes  hy 
means  of  which  the  Deity  is  pleased  to  govern  the  world, 
and  which  are  the  engines  of  his  power,  but  to  the  direct 
interposition  of  a  miraculous  agency,  over-ruling  and  sus- 
pending the  laws  of  nature,  as  in  the  period  of  Scriptural 
history. 

Many  of  the  preachers,  led  away  by  the  strength  of 
their  devotional  enthusiasm,  conceived  themselves  to  be 
the  vehicles  of  prophecy,  and  poured  out  tremendous  de- 
nunciations of  future  wars,  and  miseries  more  dreadful 
than  those  which  they  themselves  sustained  ;  and,  as  they 
imagined  themselves  to  be  occasionally  under  the  mirac- 
ulous protection  of  the  heavenly  powers,  so  they  ofton 
thought  themselves  in  a  peculiar  manner  exposed  to  the 
envy  and  persecution  of  the  spirits  of  darkness,  who  lamed 
their  horses  when  they  were  pursued,  betrayed  their  foot- 
steps to  the  enemy,  or  terrified  them  by  ghastly  apparitions 
in  the  dreary  caverns  and  recesses  where  they  were  com- 
pelled »o  hide  themselves. 

But  especially  the  scattered  Covenanters  believed  firm- 
ly, that  their  chief  nerc-ouiors  received  from  the  Evil 
Spirit  a  proof  aga.ust  lead  bullets — a  charm,  that  is,  to 
prevent  their  being  pierced  or  wounded  by  them.  There 
were  abundance  of  the  persecutors  supposed  to  be  gifted 
with  this  necromantic  privilege.  In  the  battle  of  Rullion 
Green,  on  Pentland  Hills,  many  of  the  Presbyterians  were 
willing  to  believe  that  the  balls  were  seen  hopping  like 
hailstones  from  Tom  Dalziel's  buff-coat  and  boots.  Silver 
bullets  were  not  neutralized  by  the  same  spell ;  but  that 
metal  being  scarce  amongst  the  persecuted  Covenanters, 
the  circumstance  did  not  afford  them  much  relief. 

1  have  heard  of  an  English  officer,  however,  wno  fell 
by  baser  metal.  He  was  attacking  a  small  nouse  which 
was  defended  by  some  of  the  Wanderers.  They  were 


COVENANTERS.  31 

firing  on  both  sides,  when  one  of  the  defenders,  in  scarcity 
of  ammunition,  loaded  his  piece  with  the  iron  ball  which 
formed  the  top  of  the  fire-tongs,  and  taking  aim  at  the 
officer  with  that  charge,  mortally  wounded  him  whom  lead 
had  been  unable  to  injure.  It  is  also  said  that  the  dying 
man  asked  to  know  the  name  of  the  place  where  he  fell ; 
and  being  told  it  was  Caldens,  or  Caldons,  he  exclaimed 
against  the  Evil  Spirit,  who,  he  said,  had  told  him  he  was 
to  be  slain  among  the  Chaldeans,  but,  as  it  now  appeared, 
had  deceived  him,  by  cutting  him  off  when  his  death  was 
totally  unexpected. 

To  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  a  Scottish  officer  of 
high  rank,  who  began  to  distinguish  himself  as  a  severe 
executor  of  the  orders  of  the  Privy  Council  against  non- 
conformists, the  Evil  Spirit  was  supposed  to  have  been 
still  more  liberal  than  to  Dalziel,  or  to  the  Englishman  who 
died  at  Caldons.  He  not  only  obtained  proof  against 
lead,  but  the  devil  is  said  to  have  presented  him  with  a 
black  horse,  which  had  not  a  single  white  hair  upon  its 
body.  This  horse,  it  was  said,  had  been  cut  out  of  the 
belly  of  its  dam,  instead  of  being  born  in  the  usual  man- 
ner. On  this  animal,  Claverhouse  was  supposed  to  per- 
form the  most  unwonted  feats  of  agility,  flying  almost  like 
a  bird  along  the  sides  of  precipitous  hills,  and  through 
pathless  morasses,  where  an  ordinary  horse  must  have 
been  smothered  or  dashed  to  pieces.  It  is  even  yet  be- 
lieved, that  mounted  on  this  horse,  Claverhouse  (or 
Clavers,  as  he  is  popularly  called)  once  turned  a  hare  on 
the  mountain  named  the  Brandlaw,  at  the  head  of  Moffat 
dale,  where  no  other  horse  could  have  kept  its  feet.  But 
these  exertions  were  usually  made  whilst  he  was  in  pursuit 
of  the  wanderers,  which  was  considered  as  Satan's  own 
peculiarly  pleasing  work. 

These  superstitious  notions  were  the  natural  consequen 
ces  of  the  dreaiy  and  precarious  existence  to  which  these 
poor  fugitives  were  condemned,  and  which  induced  them 
to  view  as  miraculous  whatever  was  extraordinary.  The 
persons  supposed  to  be  proof  against  bullets,  were  only 
desperate  and  bold  men,  who  had  the  luck  to  escape  the 


32  PERSECUTION    OF    THE 

dangers  to  which  they  fearlessly  exposed  themselves  ;  and 
the  equestrian  exploits  of  Claverhouse,  when  stripped  of 
exaggeration,  were  merely  such  as  may  be  executed  by 
siiiy  excellent  horseman,  ajul  first-rate  horse,  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  witness  feats  of 
the  kind. 

The  peculiar  character  and  prejudices  of  the  Covenant 
ers  are  easily  accounted  for.  Yet  when  it  is  considered 
that  so  many  Scottish  subjects  were  involved  in  the  snares 
of  these  cruel  laws,  and  liable  to  be  prosecuted  under 
them,  (the  number  is  said  to  have  reached  eighteen  or 
twenty  thousand  persons,)  it  may  seem  wonderful  that  the. 
government  could  find  a  party  in  the  kingdom  to  approve 
of  and  help  forward  measures  as  impolitic  as  they  were 
cruel.  But,  besides  the  great  command  which  the  very 
worst  government  must  always  possess  over  those  who 
look  for  advancement  and  employment  under  it,  these 
things,  it  must  be  considered,  took  place  shortly  after  the 
Royalists,  the  prevalent  party  at  that  time,  had  been  them 
selves  subjected  to  proscription,  exile,  judicial  executions, 
and  general  massacre.  The  fate  of  Montrose  and  his 
followers,  the  massacres  of  Dunnavertie  and  Philiphaugh, 
above  all,  the  murder  of  King  Charles,  had  taken  place 
during  the  predominance  of  the  Presbyterians  in  Scotland, 
and  were  imputed,  however  unjustly,  to  their  religious 
principles,  which  were  believed  by  the  Cavaliers  to  be 
inconsistent  with  law,  loyalty,  and  good  order.  Under 
such  mistaken  sentiments,  many  of  the  late  Royalist  party 
lent  their  arms  eagerly  to  suppress  the  adherents  of  a  sect, 
to  the  pre-eminence  of  which  they  traced  the  general 
misery  of  the  civil  wars,  and  their  own  peculiar  misfor- 
tunes. 

Thus  we  find  the  Lady  Methven  of  the  day,  (a  daugh 
ter  of  the  house  of  Marischal,  and  wife  of  Patrick  Smythe 
of  Methven,)  interrupting  a  conventicle  in  person.  A 
large  meeting  of  this  kind  had  assembled  on  the  grounds 
of  her  husband,  then  absent  in  London,  when  the  lady 
approached  them  at  the  head  of  about  sixty  followers  and 
allies,  she  herself  leading  them  on  with  a  light  horseman*1? 


COVENANTERS.  33 

carabine  read)1  cocked  over  her  arm,  and  a  drawn  sword 
in  the  other  hand.  The  congregation  sent  a  party  of  a 
hundred  armed  men  to  demand  her  purpose,  and  the  Am- 
azonian lady  protested,  if  they  did  not  leave  her  husband's 
estate,  it  should  he  a  Woody  day.  They  replied,  that  they 
were  determined  to  preach,  whether  she  would  or  not ; 
but  her  unshaken  determination  overcame  their  enthusi- 
asm, and  at  length  compelled  them  to  retreat.  After  this 
affair  she  wrote  to  .her  husband  that  she  was  providing 
arms,  and  even  two  pieces  of  cannon,  hearing  that  the 
Whigs  had  sworn  to  be  revenged  for  the  insults  she  had  put 
upon  them.  "  If  the  fanatics,"  she  concludes,  "  chance 
to  kill  me,  comfort  yourself  it  shall  not  be  for  naught.  I 
was  once  wounded  for  our  gracious  King,  and  now,  in  the 
strength  of  Heaven,  I  will  hazard  my  person  with  men  1 
can  command,  before  these  rebels  rest  where  you  have 
power."  No  doubt,  Lady  Methven  acted  against  these 
"  vagueing  gipsies,"  as  she  terms  them,  with  as  much 
honesty  and  sincerity  of  purpose,  as  they  themselves  en- 
tertained in  resisting  her. 

But  the  principal  agents  of  government,  in  the  perse- 
cution of  these  oppressed  people,  were  the  soldiery,  to 
whom,  contrary  to  the  rule  in  all  civilized  countries  unless 
in  actual  warfare,  power  was  given  to  arrest,  examine, 
detain,  and  imprison  such  persons  as  they  should  find  in 
the  wilderness,  which  they  daily  ransacked  to  discover 
delinquents,  whose  persons  might  afford  plunder,  or  their 
purses  pay  fines.  One  of  the_se  booted  apostles,  as  the 
Presbyterians  called  the  dragoons,  Captain  Creichton  by 
name,  has  left  his  Memoirs,  in  which  he  rather  exults  in, 
than  regrets,  the  scenes  of  rapine  and  violence  he  had 
witnessed,  and  the  plunder  which  he  collected.  The  fol- 
lowing is  one  of  his  stories. 

Being  then  a  Life-guardsman,  and  quartered  at  Bath- 
gale,  he  went  out  one  Sunday  on  the  moors  with  his 
comrade  Grant,  to  try  if  they  could  discover  any  of  the 
wanderers.  They  were  disguised  like  countrymen,  n? 
grey  coats  and  bonnets.  Alter  eight  or  ten  miles'  walking, 
ihey  descried  three  men  on  the  top  of  a  hill,  whom  they 
12  2d  SER. 


34  ADVENTURE  OF 

judged  tc  be  placed  there  as  sentinels.  The)  we>e  ?rmed 
with  long  poles.  Taking  precautions  to  come  suddenly 
upon  this  outpost,  Creichton  snatched  one  of  the  men's 
poles  from  him,  and  asking  him  what  he  meant  by  carry- 
ing such  a  pole  on  the  Lord's  day,  immediately  knocked 
him  down.  Grunt  secured  another — the  third  fled  to  give 
the  alarm,  but  Creichton  overtook  and  surprised  him  also, 
though  armed  with  a  pistol  at  his  belt. — They  were  then 
guided  onward  to  the  conventicle  by  the  voice  of  the 
preacher  Master  John  King,  (afterwards  executed,)  which 
was  so  powerful,  that  Creichton  professes  he  heard  him 
distinctly  at  a  quarter  of  a  mile's  distance,  the  wind  fav- 
ouring his  force  of  lungs. 

The  meeting  was  very  numerously  attended  ;  never- 
theless the  two  troopers  had  the  temerity  to  approach,  and 
commanded  them,  in  the  King's  name,  to  disperse.  Im- 
mediately forty  of  the  congregation  arose  in  defence,  and 
advanced  upon  the  troopers,  when  Creichton,  observing  a 
handsome  horse,  with  a  lady's  pillion  on  it,  grazing  near 
him,  seized  it,  and  leaping  on  its  back,  spurred  through 
the  morasses,  allowing  the  animal  to  choose  its  own  way. 
Grant,  though  on  foot,  kept  up  with  his  comrade  for  about 
a  mile,  and  the  whole  conventicle  followed  in  full  hue  and 
cry,  in  order  to  recover  the  palfrey,  which  belonged  to  a 
lady  of  distinction.  When  Grant  was  exhausted,  Creich- 
ton gave  him  the  horse  in  turn,  and  being  both  armed  with 
sword  and  pistol,  they  forced  their  way  through  such  of 
the  conventiclers  as  attempted  to  intercept  them,  and  gain- 
ed the  house  of  a  gentleman,  whom  Creichton  calls  Laird 
of  Poddishaw.  Here  they  met  another  gentleman  of 
fortune,  the  Laird  of  Polkemmet,  who,  greatly  to  his  dis- 
turbance, recognised,  in  the  horse  which  the  troopers  had 
brought  off,  his  own  lady's  nag,  on  which,  without  his 
knowledge,  she  had  used  the  freedom  to  ride  to  the  con- 
venticle. He  was  now  in  the  mercy  of  the  Life-guards- 
men, being  liable  to  a  heavy  fine  for  his  wife's  delinquency, 
besides  the  forfeiture  of  the  pony.  In  this  dilemma,  Mr. 
Baillie  of  Polkemmet  invited  the  Life-guardsmen  to  dine 
Kith  him  next  day,  and  offered  them  the  horse  with  its 


CAPTAIN    CREICHTON.  35 

furniture,  as  a  lawful  prize.  But  Creichton,  perceiving 
that  the  lady  was  weeping,  very  gallantly  gave  up  hi.s  claim 
to  the  horse,  on  condition  she  would  promise  never  to 
attend  a  conventicle  again.  The  military  gentlemen  were 
no  losers  by  this  liberality,  for  as  the  lady  mentioned  the 
names  of  some  wealthy  persons  who  were  present  at  the 
unlawful  meeting,  her  husband  gave  them  to  understand 
that  they  must  make  up  a  purse  of  hush-money,  for  the 
benefit  of  Creichton  and  his  comrade,  who  lived  plenti- 
fully for  a  twelvemonth  afterwards  on  the  sum  thus  ob- 
tained. 

This  story,  though  it  shows  the  power  intrusted  to  the 
soldiers,  to  beat  and  plunder  the  persons  assembled  for 
religious  worship,  is  rather  of  a  comic  than  serious  cast. 
But  far  different  were  the  ordinary  rencounters  which  took 
place  between  the  Covenanters  and  the  military.  About 
forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  melancholy  tales  of  the  strange 
escapes,  hard  encounters,  and  cruel  exactions  of  this  peri- 
od, were  the  usual  subject  of  conversation  at  every  cottage 
fireside  ;  and  the  peasants,  while  they  showed  the  caverns 
and  dens  of  the  earth  in  which  the  Wanderers  concealed 
themselves,  recounted  how  many  of  them  died  in  resisting 
with  arms  in  their  hands,  how  many  others  were  executed 
by  judicial  forms,  and  how  many  were  shot  to  death  with- 
out even  the  least  pretence  of  a  trial.  The  country  peo- 
ple retained  a  strong  sense  of  the  injustice  with  which 
their  ancestors  had  been  treated,  which  showed  itself  in  a 
singular  prejudice.  They  expressed  great  dislike  of  that 
beautiful  bird  the  Green-plover,  in  Scottish  called  the 
Pease-weep.  The  reason  alleged  was,  that  these  birds 
being,  by  some  instinct,  led  to  attend  to  and  watch  any 
human  beings  whom  they  see  in  thplr  native  wilds,  the 
soldiers  were  often  guided  in  pursuit  of  the  Wanderers, 
when  they  might  otherwise  have  escaped  observation,  by 
the  plover  being  observed  to  hover  over  a  particular  spot. 
For  this  reason,  the  shepherds  often  destroyed  the  nests 
of  the  bird  when  they  met  with  them. 

A  still  sadder  memorial  of  those  calamitous  days  was 
the  numbe:  of  headstones  and  other  simple  monuments 


36  OLD    MORTALITY. 

which,  afier  the  Revolution,  were  erected  over  the  craves 
of  the  persons  thus  destroyed,  and  which  usiiallv  bore, 
along  with  some  lines  of  rude  poetry,  an  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  had  heen  slain. 

These  mortal  resting-places  of  the  victims  of  persecu- 
tion, were  held  so  sacred,  that. about  forty  years  since  an 
aged  man  dedicated  his  life  to  travet  through  Scotland, 
for  the  purpose  of  repairing  and  clearing  the  tombs  of  the 
sufferers.  He  always  rode  upon  a  white  pony,  and  from 
that  circumstance,  and  the  peculiarity  of  his  -appearance 
and  occupation,  acquired  the  nickname  of  Old  Mortality. 
In  later  days,  the  events  of  our  own  time  have  been  of 
such  an  engrossing  character,  that  this  species  of  traditional 
history  is  much  forgotten,  and  moss  and  weeds  are  gene- 
rally suffered  to  conceal  the  monuments  of  the  martyrs. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Descent  of  the  Highland  Host—^Writs  of 

on  behalf  of  the  King,  taken  out  against  the  Gentle- 
men of  the  Wtst — Trial  and  execution  of  Mitchell, 
for  assassinating  Honyman,  13ishop  of  the  Orkneys — 
Murder  of  Jlrclibishop  Sharpe. —  The  Nonconformists 
take  up  arms  in  the  West — Defeat  of  Cfaverhouse  at 
Drumclog — The  Duke  of  Monmouth  sent  to  Scot- 
land to  suppress  the  Insurrection — Battle  of  Bothwell 
Bridge. 

WE  have  said  before,  that  Lauderdale,  now  the  Chief 
Minister  for  Scotland,  had  not  originally  approved  of  the 
violent  measures  taken  with  the  nonconformists,  and  had 
even  recommended  a  more  lenient  mode  of  proceeding, 
by  granting  a  toleration,  or  Indulgence,  as  it  was  called, 
for  the  free  exercise  of  the  Presbyterian  religion.  But 
being  too  in-patient  to  wait  the  issue  of  his  own  experi- 
ment, and  fearful  of  being  represented  as  lukewaim  in 
the  King's  service,  he  at  length  imitated  and  even  ex- 


\ 
LAUDERDALE'S  SEVERITY.  37 

ceeded  Middleton,  in  his   extreme   severities  against  the 
nonconformists. 

The  Duke  of  Lauderdale,  for  to  that  rank  he  was  rais- 
ed when  the  government  was  chiefly  intrusted  to  him, 
married  Lady  Dysart,  a  woman  of  considerable  talent, 
but  of  inordinate  ambition,  boundless  expense,  and  the 
most  unscrupulous  rapacity.  Her  influence  over  her  hus- 
band was  extreme,  and,  unhappily,  was  of  a  kind  which 
encouraged  him  in  his  greatest  errors.  In  order  to  supply 
her  extravagance,  he  had  recourse  to  the  public  fines  for 
nonconformity,  church  penalties,  and  so  forth,  prosecutions 
for  which,  with  the  other  violent  proceedings  we  have 
noticed,  were  pushed  on  to  such  an  extremity  as  to  induce 
a  general  opinion,  that  Lauderdale  really  meant  to  drive 
the  people  of  Scotland  to  a  rebellion,  in  order  that  he 
himself  might  profit  by  the  confiscations  which  must  follow 
on  its  being  subdued. 

The  Scottish  nobility  and  gentry  were  too  wise  to  be 
caught  in  this  snare  ;  but  although  they  expressed  the 
utmost  loyalty  to  the  King,  yet  many,  with  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton,  the  premier  Peer  of  Scotland,  at  their  head, 
remonstrated  against  courses  which,  while  they  beggared 
the  tenantry,  impoverished  the  gentry  and  ruined  their 
estates.  By  way  of  answer  to  their  expostulations,  the 
western  landholders  were  required  to  enter  into  bonds, 
under  the  same  penalties  which  were  incurred  by  those 
who  were  actual  delinquents,  that  neither  they  nor  their 
families,  nor  their  vassals,  tenants,  or  other  persons  resid- 
ing on  their  property,  should  withdraw  from  church,  attend 
conventicles,  or  relieve  intercommuned  persons. — The 
gentry  refused  to  execute  these  bonds.  They  admitted 
that  conventicles  were  become  very  frequent,  and  express- 
ed their  willingness  to  assist  the  officers  of  the  law  in  sup- 
pressing them  ;  but,  as  they  could  exercise  no  forcible 
control  over  their  tenants  and  servants,  they  declined  to 
render  themselves  responsible  for  their  conformity.  Fi- 
nally, they  recommended  a  general  indulgence,  as  the  only 
measure  which  promised  the  restoration  of  tranquillity. 


38  THE    HIGHLAND    HOST. 

Both  parties,  at  that  unhappy  period,  (1678,)  were  in 
the  habit  of  imputing  their  enemies'  measures  to  the  sug- 
gestions of  Satan  ;  but  that  adopted  by  Lauderdale,  upon 
the  western  gentlemen's  refusing  the  bond,  had  really  some 
appearance  of  being  the  absolute  dictate  of  an  evil  spirit. 
He  determined  to  treat  the  whole  west  country  as  if  in  a 
state  of  actual  revolt.  He  caused  not  only  a  body  of  the 
guards  and  militia,  with  field  artillery,  to  march  into  the 
devoted  districts,  but  invited,  for  the  same  purpose,  from 
the  Highland  mountains,  the  class  by  which  they  were 
inhabited.  These  wild  mountaineers  descended  under 
their  different  chiefs,  speaking  an  unknown  language,  and 
displaying  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  low  countries  their 
strange  attire,  obsolete  arms,  and  singular  manners.  The 
clans  were  surprised  in  their  turn.  They  had  come  out 
expecting  to  fight,  when,  to  their  astonishment,  they  found 
an  innocent,  peaceful,  and  unresisting  country,  in  which 
they  were  to  enjoy  free  quarters,  and  full  license  for  plun- 
der. It  may  be  supposed,  that  such  an  invitation  to  men, 
to  whom  marauding  habits  were  natural,  offered  opportu- 
nities not  to  be  lost,  and  accordingly  the  western  counties 
long  had  occasion  to  lament  the  inroad  of  the  Highland 
Host.  A  committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  most  of  whom 
were  themselves  chiefs  of  clans,  or  commanders  in  the 
army,  attended  to  secure  the  submission  of  the  gentry, 
and  enforce  the  bonds.  But  the  noblemen  and  gentry 
continuing  obstinate  in  their  refusal  to  come  under  obliga- 
tions which  they  had  no  means  of  fulfilling,  the  Privy 
Council  issued  orders  to  disarm  the  whole  inhabitants  of 
the  country,  taking  even  the  gentlemen's  swords,  riding 
horses,  and  furniture,  and  proceeded  with  such  extreme 
rigour,  that  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  among  others,  prayed 
they  would  either  afford  him  the  protection  of  soldiers,  or 
return  him  some  of  his  arms  to  defend  his  household, 
since  otherwise  he  must  be  subject  to  the  insolence  and 
mirages  of  the  most  paltry  of  the  rabble. 

To  supply   the  place  of  the  bonds,  which  were  sub- 
scribed by  few  or  none,  this  unhappy  Privy  Council  fell 


LAWBURROWS    AGAINST    THE    WEST.  39 

upon  a  plan,  by  a  new  decree,  of  a  nature  equally  op- 
pressive. There  was,  and  is,  a  writ  in  Scotland,  called 
lawburrows,  by  which  a  man,  who  is  afraid  of  violence 
from  his  neighbours,  upon  making  oath  to  the  circumstan- 
ces affording  ground  for  such  apprehension,  may  have  the 
party  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace,  under  security.  Of 
this  useful  law,  a  most  oppressive  application  was  now 
made.  The  King  was  made  to  apply  for  a  lawburrows 
through  a  certain  district  of  his  dominions,  against  all  the 
gentlemen  who  had  refused  to  sign  the  bond ;  and  thus 
an  -AUemDt  was  made  to  extort  security  from  every  man 
so  situated,  as  one  of  whom  the  King  had  a  natural  right 
to  enter.am  well-founded  apprehensions  ! 

These  extraordinary  provisions  of  law  seem  to  have 
driven,  not  the  Presbyterians  alone,  but  the  whole  country 
of  the  west,  into  absolute  despair. 

No  supplication  or  remonstrance  had  the  least  effect  on 
the  impenetrable  Lauderdale.  When  he  was  told  that 
the  oppression  of  the  Highlanders  and  of  the  soldiery 
would  totally  interrupt  the  produce  of  agriculture,  lie  re- 
plied, it  were  better  that  the  west  bore  nothing  but  windle- 
straws  and  sandy-laverocks,*  than  that  it  should  bear 
rebels  to  the  King.  In  their  despair,  the  suffering  parties 
determined  to  lay  their  complaints  against  the  Minister 
before  the  King  in  person.  VV'ith  this  purpose,  not  less 
than  fourteen  peers,  and  fifteen  gentlemen,  of  whom  many 
were  threatened  with  writs  of  lawburrows,  repaired  to 
London,  to  lay  their  complaints  at  the  foot  of  the  throne. 
This  journey  was  taken  in  spite  of  an  arbitrary  order,  by 
which  the  Scottish  nobility  had  been  discharged,  in  the 
King's  name,  either  to  approach  the  King's  person,  or  to 
leave  their  own  kingdom  ;  as  if  it  had  been  the  purpose 
to  chain  them  to  the  stake,  like  baited  bears,  without  the 
power  of  applying  for  redress,  or  escaping  from  the  gen- 
eral misery. 

Lauderdale  had  so  much  interest  at  court,  as  to  support 
himself  against  this  accusation,  by  representing  to  the  King 

*  Dog's  grass  and  sea-larks. 


40  ATTEMPT    TO    MURDER    THE    PRIMATE. 

that  it  was  his  object  to  maintain  a  large  army  in  Scotland 
to  afford  assistance  when  his  Majesty  should  see  it  time  to 
extend  his  authority  in  England.  He  retained  his  place, 
therefore,  and  the  supplicants  were  sent  from  court  in  dis- 
grace. But  their  mission  had  produced  some  beneficial 
effects,  for  the  measure  concerning  the  "lawburrows  and 
the  enforced  bonds  were  withdrawn,  and  orders  given  for 
withdrawing  the  Highlanders  from  the  west  countries,  and 
disbanding  the  militia. 

When  the  Highlanders  went  back  to  their  hills,  which 
was  in  February,  1078,  they  appeared  as  if  returning 
from  the  sack  of  some  besieged  town.  They  carried 
with  them  plate,  merchant-goods,  webs  of  linen  and  of 
cloth,  quantities  of  wearing  apparel,  and  household  furni- 
ture, and  a  good  number  of  horses  to  bear  their  plunder. 
It  is,  however,  remarkable,  and  lo  the  credit  of  this  people, 
that  they  are  not  charged  with  any  cruelty  during  three 
months'  residence  at  free-quarters,  although  they  were 
greedy  of  spoil,  and  rapacious  in  extorting  money.  In- 
deed, it  seems  probable,  that,  after  all,  the  wild  Highland- 
ers had  proved  gentler  than  was  expected,  or  wished,  by 
those  who  employed  them. 

An  event  now  occurred,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  time,  which  had  a  great  effect  upon  public  affairs, 
and  the  general  feeling  of  the  nation.  This  was  the 
death  of  James  Sharpe,  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
and  Primate  of  Scotland.  This  person,  you  must  re- 
member, having  been  the  agent  of  the  Presbyterians 
at  the  time  of  the  Restoration,  had,  as  was  generally 
thought,  betrayed  his  constituents  ;  at  least  he  had  cer- 
tainly changed  his  principles,  and  accepted  the  highest 
office  in  the  new  Episcopal  establishment.  It  may  be 
well  supposed  that  a  person  so  much  hated  as  he  was, 
from  his  desertion  of  the  old  cause,  and  violence  in  the 
new,  was  the  object  of  general  hostility,  and  that 
amongst  a  sect  so  enthusiastic  as  the  nonconformists, 
some  one  should  be  found  to  exercise  judgment  upon 
him — in  other  words,  to  take  his  life. 


MITCHELL    EXAMINED,    AND    PLT    TO    TORTURE.       41 

The  avenger,  who  conceived  himself  called  to  this 
task,  was  one  Mitchell,  a  fanatical  preacher,  of  moderate 
talents  and  a  heated  imagination.  He  fired  a  pistol, 
loaded  with  three  bullets,  into  the  coac-h  of  the  Archbish 
op,  and  missing  the  object  of  his  aim,  broke  the  arm  of 
Honyman,  Bishop  of  the  Orkneys,  who  sat  with  Sharpe 
in  the  carriage,  of  which  wound  he  never  entirely  recov- 
ered, though  he  lingered  for  some  years.  The  assassin 
escaped  during  the  confusion.  This  was  in  1668,  and 
in  1674  the  Archbishop  again  observed  a  man  who  seem- 
ed to  watch  him,  and  whose  face  was  imprinted  upon  his 
mind.  The  alarm  was  given,  and  Mitchell  was  seized. 
Being  closely  examined  by  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil, he  at  first  absolutely  denied  the  act  charged  against 
him.  But  to  the  Chancellor  he  confessed  in  private — 
having  first  received  a  solemn  promise  that  his  life  should 
be  safe — -that  he  had  fired  the  shot  which  wounded  the 
Bishop  of  Orkney.  After  this  compromise,  the  assassin's 
trial  was  put  off  from  time  to  time,  from  the  determined 
desire  to  take  the  life  which  had  been  promised  to  him. 
In  order  to  find  matter  against  Mitchell,  he  was  examined 
concerning  his  accession  to  the  insurrection  of  Pentland  ; 
and  as  he  refused  to  confess  anything  which  should  make 
against  himself,  he  was  appointed  to  undergo  the  torture 
of  the  boot. 

He  behaved  with  great  courage  when  the  frightful  ap- 
paratus was  produced,  and  not  knowing,  as  he  said,  that 
lie  could  escape  such  torture  with  life,  declared  that  he 
forgave  from  his  heart  those  at  whose  command  it  was  to 
be  inflicted,  the  men  appointed  to  be  the  agents  of  their 
cruelty,  and  those  who  satiated  their  malevolence  by  look- 
ing on  as  spectators.  When  the  executioner  demanded 
which  leg  should  be  enclosed  in  the  dreadful  boot,  the 
prisoner,  with  the  same  confidence,  stretched  out  his  right 
leg,  saying, "  Take  the  best ;  I  willingly  bestow  it  in  this 
cause."  He  endured  nine  blows  of  the  mallet  with  the 
utmost  firmness,  each  more  severely  crushing  the  limb. 
At  the  ninth  blow  he  fainted,  and  was  remanded  to  prison. 

897 


Kl  EXECUTION    OF    MITCHELL. 

After  this  he  was  sent  to  the  Bass,  a  desolate  isle,  or 
rather  rock,  in  the  Frith  of  Forth,  where  was  a  strong 
castle,  then  occupied  as  a  state  prison. 

Upon  the  7th  of  January,  1678,  ten  years  after  the 
deed  was  committed,  and  four  years  after  he  was  made 
prisoner,  Mitchell  was  finally  brought  to  his  trial  ;  and 
while  his  own  confession  was  produced  against  him  as 
evidence,  he  was  not  allowed  to  plead  the  promise  of  life 
upon  which  he  had  been  induced  to  make  the  fatal  avow- 
al. It  is  shameful  to  be  obliged  to  add,  that  the  Duke  of 
Lauderdale  would  not  permit  the  records  of  the  Privy 
Council  to  be  produced,  and  that  some  of  the  Privy 
Counsellors  swore,  that  no  assurance  of  life  had  been 
granted,  although  it  is  now  to  be  seen  on  the  record. 
The  unfortunate  man  was  therefore  condemned.  Lau- 
derdale, it  is  said,  would  have  saved  his  life  ;  but  the 
Archbishop  demanded  his  execution  as  necessary  to 
guard  the  lives  of  Privy  Counsellors  from  such  attempts 
in  future,  the  Duke  gave  up  the  cause  with  a  profane  and 
brutal  jest,  and  the  man  was  executed,  with  more  dis- 
grace to  his  judges  than  to  himself,  the  consideration  of 
his  guilt  being  lost  in  the  infamous  manoeuvres  used  in 
bringing  him  to  punishment. 

I  have  already  said,  that  in  the  commencement  of 
Lauderdale's  administration,  Archbishop  Sharpe  was  re- 
moved from  public  affairs.  But  this  did  not  last  long,  as 
the  Duke  found  that  he  could  not  maintain  his  interest 
at  court  without  the  support  of  the  Episcopal  party.  The 
Primate's  violence  of  disposition  was  supposed  to  have 
greatly  influenced  the  whole  of  Lauderdale's  latter  gov- 
ernment. But  in  Fife,  where  he  had  his  archiepiscopal 
residence,  it  was  most  severely  felt ;  and  as  the  noncon- 
formists of  that  county  were  fierce  and  enthusiastic  in 
proportion  to  the  extremity  of  persecution  which  the) 
underwent,  there  was  soon  found  a  band  among  them  who 
sent  abroad  an  anonymous  placard,  threatening  that  any 
person  who  might  be  accessary  to  the  troubles  inflicted 
upon  the  Whigs  in  that  county,  should  be  suitably  punish- 
ed D)  i  party  strong  enough  to  set  resistance  at  defiance. 


ASSASSINATION    OF   BISHOP   SHARPE.  43 

The  chief  person  among  these  desperate  men  was  Da- 
vid Hackston  of  Rathillet,  a  gentleman  of  family  and 
fortune.  He  had  been  a  loose  liver  in  his  youth,  but  lat 
terly  had  adopted  strong  and  enthusiastic  views  of  reli- 
gion, which  led  him  into  the  extreme  opinions  entertained 
by  the  fiercest  of  the  Whig  party.  John  Balfour  of  Kin- 
loch,  called  Burley,  the  brother-in-law  of  Hackston,  is 
described  by  a  covenanting  author,  as  a  little  man  of 
stern  aspect,  and  squint-eyed ;  none  of  the  most  religious, 
but  very  willing  to  engage  in  any  battles  or  quarrels 
which  his  comrades  found  it  necessary  to  sustain.  He 
was  at  this  time  in  danger  from  the  law,  on  account  of  a 
late  affray,  in  which  he  had  severely  wounded  one  of  the 
Life-guards.  It  is  alleged  that  both  these  persons  had 
private  enmity  at  Archbishop  Sharpe.  Balfour  had  been 
his  factor  in  the  management  of  some  property,  and  had 
failed  to  give  account  of  the  money  he  had  received,  and 
Hackston,  being  bail  for  his  brother-in-law,  was  thrown 
into  jail  till  the  debt  was  made  good.  The  remainder  of 
the  band  were  either  small  proprietors  of  land,  or  portion- 
ers,  as  they  are  called  in  Scotland,  or  mechanics,  such 
as  weavers  and  the  like. 

These  enthusiasts,  to  the  number  of  nine,  were  out, 
and  in  arms,  upon  3d  May,  1G79,  with  the  purpose  of 
assaulting  (in  the  terms  of  their  proclamation)  one  Car- 
mie-hael,  who  acted  as  a  commissioner  lor  receiving  the 
fines  of  the  nonconformists.  This  person  had  indeed 
been  in  the  fields  hunting  that  morning,  but  chancing  to 
hear  that  there  was  such  a  party  looking  out  for  him,  he 
left  his  sport  and  went  home. 

When  Rathillet  and  his  friends  were  about  to  disperse, 
in  sullen  disappointment,  the  wife  of  a  fanner  at  Baldin- 
ny  sent  a  lad  to  tell  them,  that  the  Archbishop's  coach 
was  upon  the  road  returning  from  Ceres  towards  St.  An- 
drews. The  conspirators  were  in  that  mood  when  our 
own  wishes  and  thoughts,  strongly  fostered  and  cherished, 
are  apt  to  seem  to  us  like  inspiration  from  above.  Bal- 
four, or  Burley,  affirmed  he  had  felt  a  preternatural  im- 
pulse forcing  him  to  return  from  Fi'e,  when  it  was  [\in 


44  ASSASSINATION    OF    BISHOP    SHARPS 

purpose  to  have  gone  to  the  Highlands,  and  that  iroine;  to 
pravers,  he  had  been  confirmed  by  the  Scripture  text, 
"  Go,  have  not  1  sent  thee  ?"  Russell,  another  of  the 
party,  also  affirmed  he  had  been  long  impressed  with  the 
idea  that  some  great  enemy  to  the  church  was  to  be  cut 
off,  and  spoke  of  some  text  about  ISero,  which  assuredly 
does  not  exist  in  Scripture. 

They  all  agreed,  in  short,  that  the  opportunity  offered 
was  the  work  of  Heaven  ;  that  they  should  not  draw 
back,  but  go  on  ;  and  that,  instead  of  the  inferior  agent, 
for  whom  they  had  been  seeking  in  vain,  it  was  their  duty 
to  cut  off  the  prime  source  of  the  persecution,  whom 
Heaven  had  delivered  into  their  hands.  This  being  de 
termined  upon,  the  band  chose  Hackston  for  their  leader ; 
but  he  declined  the  office,  alleging,  that  the  known  quar- 
rel betwixt  him  and  the  Archbishop  would  mar  the  glory 
of  the  action,  and  cause  it  to  be  imputed  to  private  re- 
venge. But  he  added,  with  nice  distinction,  that  he 
would  remain  with  them,  and  would  not  interfere  to  pre- 
vent what  they  felt  themselves  called  upon  to  do.  13al- 
four  then  said,  "  Gentlemen,  follow  me." 

They  then  set  off  at  speed  in  pursuit  of  the  carriage 
which  was  driving  along  a  desolate  heath,  about  three  01 
four  miles  from  St.  Andrews,  culled  Magus-Moor.  Flem 
ing  and  Russell,  two  of  the  assassins,  rode  into  a  farm- 
yard, and  demanded  of  the  tenant,  If  that  equipage  on 
the  road  before  them  were  the  Archbishop's  coach  ? 
Guessing  their  purpose,  he  was  too  much  frightened  to 
answer ;  but  one  of  the  female  servants  came  out  and 
assured  them,  with  much  appearance  of  joy,  that  they 
were  on  the  right  scent.  The  whole  party  then  threw 
away  their  cloaks,  and  pursued  as  fast  as  they  could  gal- 
lop, firing  their  carabines  on  th9  carriage,  and  crying  out, 
"  Judas,  be  taken  !"  The  coachman  drove  rapidly,  on 
seeing  they  were  pursued  by  armed  men  ;  but  a  heavy 
coach  in  a  rugged  road  could  not  outstrip  horsemen. 
The  servants  who  attended  the  carriage  offered  some 
resistance,  but  were  dismounted  and  disarmed  by  the 
pursuers.  Having  come  up  with  the  carriage,  they  stop- 


ASSASSINATION    OF    BISHOP    SHARPE.  45 

ped  it  by  cutting  the  traces,  and  wounding  the  postilion  ; 
and  then  fired  a  volley  of  balls  into  the  coach,  where  the 
Archbishop  was  seated  with  his  daughter.  This  proving 
ineffectual,  they  commanded  the  Prelate  to  come  forth, 
and  prepare  for  death,  judgment,  and  eternity.  The  old 
man  came  out  of  the  coach,  and  creeping  on  his  knees 
towards  Hackston,  said,  "  I  know  you  are  a  gentleman — 
you  will  protect  me  ?" 

"1  will  never  lay  a  hand  upon  you,"  said  Hackston, 
turning  away  from  the  suppliant.  One  man  of  the  party, 
touched  with  some  compassion,  said,  "  Spare  his  grey 
hairs."  But  the  rest  of  the  assassins  were  unmoved. 
One  or  two  pistols  were  discharged  at  the  prostrate  Arch- 
bishop without  effect  ;  when,  conceiving,  according  to 
their  superstitious  notion,  that  their  victim  was  possessed 
of  a  charm  against  gun-shot,  they  drew  their  swords,  and 
killed  him  with  many  wounds,  dashing  even  his  skull  to 
pieces,  and  scooping  out  his  brains.  The  lady,  who  made 
vain  attempts  to  throw  herself  between  her  lather  and 
the  swords  of  the  assassins,  received  one  or  two  wounds 
in  the  scuffle.  They  rifled  the  coach  of  such  arms  and 
papers  as  it  contained.  They  found  some  trinkets,  which 
they  conceived  were  magical;  and  also,  as  they  pretend- 
ed, a  bee  in  a  box,  which  they  concluded  was  a  familiar 
spirit. 

Such  was  the  progress  and  termination  of  a  violent  and 
wicked  deed,  committed  by  blinded  and  desperate  men. 
It  brought  much  scandal  on  the  Presbyterians,  though 
unjustly  ;  for  the  moderate  persons  of  that  persuasion, 
comprehending  the  most  numerous,  and  by  far  the  most 
respectable  of  the  body,  disowned  so  cruel  an  action, 
although  they  might  be  at  the  same  time  of  opinion,  that 
the  Archbishop,  who  had  been  the  cause  of  many  men's 
violent  death,  merited  some  such  conclusion  to  his  owr 
He  had  some  virtues,  being  learned,  temperate,  and  liv 
ing  a  life  becoming  his  station  ;  but  his  illiberal  and  intol- 
erant principles,  and  the  violences  which  he  committed 
to  enforce  them,  were  the  occasion  of  great  distress  to 
Scotland,  and  of  his  own  premature  and  bloody  end. 


40  ASSASSINATION    OF    BISHOP    SHARPK. 

The  Scottish  government,  which  the  Archbishop's 
death  had  alarmed  and  irritated  in  the  highest  degree, 
used  the  utmost  exertions  to  apprehend  his  murderers  j 
and  failing  that,  to  disperse  and  subdue,  by  an  extremity 
of  violence  greater  than  what  had  been  hitherto  employ- 
ed, every  assembly  of  armed  Covenanters.  All  attend- 
ance upon  field-conventicles  was  declared  treason  ;  new 
troops  were  raised,  and  the  strictest  orders  sent  to  the 
commanding  officers  to  act  against  nonconformists  with 
the  utmost  rigour.  On  the  other  hand,  the  intercom- 
mimed  persons,  now  grown  desperate,  assembled  in 
more  numerous  and  better  armed  parlies,  and  many  of 
them  showed  a  general  purpose  of  defying  and  rebelling 
against  the  King's  authority,  which  the  moderate  party 
continued  to  acknowledge,  as  being  that  of  the  supreme 
Civil  Magistrate.  These  circumstances  soon  led  to  a 
crisis. 

Several  of  the  murderers  of  the  Archbishop  of  Saint 
Andrews  found  their  way,  through  great  dangers,  to  the 
west  of  Scotland  ;  and  their  own  interest,  doubtless,  in- 
duced them  to  use  such  influence  as  they  had  acquired 
by  their  late  action,  to  bring  mallei's  to  extremily. 

Hackston,  Balfour,  and  others,  seem  to  have  held 
counsel  with  Donald  Cargill,  one  of  the  most  noted  of  the 
preachers  at  conventicles,  and  particularly  with  Robert 
Hamilton,  brother  to  the  Laird  of  Prestonfield ;  in  con- 
sequence of  which  they  appeared  at  the  head  of  eighty 
horse,  in  the  little  burgh  of  Rutherglen,  upon  ihe  29th  of 
May,  appointed  to  be  held  as  a  holiday,  on  account  of 
the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.  They  quenched  the  bon- 
fires, which  had  been  kindled  on  account  of  ibis  solem- 
nity, and,  drawing  up  in  order  at  the  market-cross  after 
prayer,  and  singing  part  of  a  psalm,  they  formally  enlered 
iheir  prolest,  or  testimony,  as  they  called  it,  against  the 
acts  abolishing  Presbytery,  and  establishing  Episcopacy, 
together  with  the  other  defections  of  the  time,  all  of 
which  ihey  renounced  and  disclaimed.  After  this  brava- 
do, they  affixed  a  copy  of  their  testimony  on  the  cross, 
Closed  their  meeting  with  prayer,  and  then  evacuated  the 


DEFEAT  OF  CLAVERHOUSE  AT  DRUMCLOO      47 

town  at  their  leisure,  the  individuals  retiring  to  their  own 
houses,  and  Hamilton  harbouring  the  Fife  gentlemen, 
that  is,  those  who  had  killed  the  Archbishop. 

We  have  already  mentioned  John  Graham  of  Claver- 
house  as  a  superior  officer,  who  had  been  singularly  ac 
live  against  the  nonconformists.  He  was  now  Ivmg  in 
garrison  at  Glasgow,  and,  on  the  first  of  June,  drew  out 
his  own  troop  of  dragoons,  with  such  -other  cavalry  as  he 
could  hasiily  add  to  it,  and  set  off  in  quest  of  the  insur- 
gents, who  had  offered  such  a  public  affront  to  govern- 
ment. 

At  Hamilton,  he  made  prisoner  John  King,  a  preacher, 
and  with  him  seventeen  countrymen,  who  were  attending 
on  his  ministry  ;  and  hearing  of  a  larger  assembly  of  in- 
siugents  who  were  at  Loudon-hill,  a  short  distance  off, 
he  pushed  forward  to  that  place.  Here  Claverhouse  was 
opposed  by  a  large  body  in  point  of  numbers,  but  very 
indifferently  armed,  though  there  were  about  fifty  horse, 
tolerably  appointed,  as  many  infantry  with  guns,  and  a 
number  of  men  armed  with  scythes,  forks,  pikes,  and  hal- 
berts.  The  immediate  spot  on  which  the  parties  met 
was  called  Drumclog.  It  is  a  boggy  piece  of  ground, 
unfit  for  the  acting  of  cavalry,  and  a  broad  drain,  or  ditch, 
seems  also  to  have  given  the  insurgents  considerable  ad- 
vantage. A  short  but  warm  engagement  ensued,  during 
which  Balfour,  and  William  Cleland,  to  be  afterwards 
mentioned,  crossed  the  ditch  boldly,  and,  outflanking  the 
dragoons,  compelled  them  to  fly.  About  thirty  of  the 
defeated  party  were  slain,  or  died  of  their  wounds.  An 
officer  of  the  name  of  Graham,  a  kinsman  of  Claver- 
house,  was  among  the  slain.  His  body,  mistaken,  it  is 
reported,  for  that  of  his  namesake,  was  pitifully  mangled. 
Claverhouse's  own  horse  was  laid  open  by  the  blow  of  a 
scythe,  and  was  scarcely  able  to  bear  him  off  the  field  of 
battle.  As  he  passed  the  place  where  he  had  left  his 
prisoners,  King,  the  preacher,  when  he  beheld  his  captor 
n  this  pitiful  plight,  halloed  out  to  him  to  stay  and  take 
Jie  afternoon  sermon.  Some  royalist  prisoners  were 
taken,  to  whofci  quarter  was  given,  and  they  were  dismiss- 


48  ATTACK    UPON    GLASGOW. 

«;d.  This  clemency  on  the  part  of  his  soldiers  greatl} 
disgusted  Mr.  Hamilton,  who  now  assumed  the  command 
of  the  insurgents.  To  show  a  good  example,  he  killed 
one  of  the  defenceless  captives  W'th  his  own  hand,  lenity 
being,  according  to  his  exaggerated  ideas,  the  setting  free 
the  brats  of  Babel,  after  they  had  been  delivered  into 
their  hands,  that  they  might  dash  them  to  the  stones 
The  insurgents  only  lost  five  or  six  men  ;  one  of  whom 
had  assisted  at  the  murder  of  the  Archbishop. 

After  having  gained  this  victory,  the  insurgents  resolv- 
ed to  keep  the  field,  and  take  such  future  fortune  as  hea- 
ven should  send  them.  They  marched  to  Hamilton  after 
the  action,  and  the  next  day,  strongly  reinforced  by  the 
numbers  which  joined  them  on  all  sides,  they  proceeded 
to  attack  the  town  of  Glasgow. 

The  city  was  defended  by  Lord  Ross  and  Claverhouse, 
with  a  small  but  regular  force.  The  insurgents  penetrat- 
ed into  the  town  from  two  points,  one  column  advancing 
up  the  Gallowgate,  the  other  entering  by  the  College  and 
the  Wynd  Head.  But  Claverhouse,  who  •  ommanded  the 
King's  troops,  had  formed  a  barricade  about  the  Cross, 
Town-house,  and  Tolbooth,  so  that  the  Whigs,  in  march 
ing  to  the  attack,  were  received  with  a  fire  which  they 
could  not  sustain,  from  an  enemy  who  lay  sheltered  arid 
in  safety.  But  although  they  were  beaten  for  the  pres- 
ent, the  numbers  of  the  insurgents  began  so  much  to 
increase,  that  Ross  and  Claverhouse  judged  it  neces- 
sary to  evacuate  Glasgow,  and  march  eastward,  leaving 
all  the  west  of  Scotland  at  the  mercy  of  the  rebels, 
whose  numbers  speedily  amounted  to  five  or  six  thous- 
and men.  There  were  among  them,  however,  very  few 
gentlemen,  or  persons  of  influence,  whose  presence 
might  have  prevented  them  from  falling  into  the  state 
of  disunion  to  which,  owing  to  the  following  circum- 
stances, they  were  speedily  reduced. 

The  discord  was  now  at  its  height  between  the  more 
moderate  Presbyterians,  who  were  willing  to  own  the 
King's  government  under  the  condition  of  obtaining  free- 
dom  of  conscience ;  and  the  more  hot-headed  and  furious 


DISPUTES    AMONU    THE    INSURGENTS.  49 

partisans,  who  would  entertain  no  friendship  or  fellowship 
with  those  who  owned  and  supported  prelacy,  and  who 
held  the  acknowledging  the  government,  or  the  listening 
to  the  preachers  who  ministered  by  their  indulgence  or 
connivance,  as  a  foul  compromising  of  the  cause  of  Pres- 
bytery, and  professed  it  their  object  to  accomplish  a 
complete  revolution  in  Church  and  State,  and  render  the 
kirk  as  triumphant  as  it  had  been  in  1G40. 

The  preachers  had  likewise  differed  amongst  themselves. 
Mr.  John  Welsh,  much  famed  for  his  zeal  for  Presbyte- 
ry, did,  nevertheless,  together  with  Mr.  David  Hume, 
head  the  Moderate,  or,  as  it  was  called  by  their  oppo- 
nents, the  Erastian  party  ;  whilst  Donald  Cargill,  Thom- 
as Douglas,  and  John  King,  espoused,  with  all  ardour, 
the  more  extravagant  purposes,  which  nothing  short  of  a 
miracle  could  have  enabled  them  to  accomplish.  These 
champions  of  the  two  parties  preached  against  each  other 
from  the  pulpit,  harangued  and  voted  on  different  sides  in 
councils  of  war.  and  had  not  the  sense  to  agree,  or  even 
to  adjourn  their  disputes,  when  they  heard  that  the  forces 
of  both  England  and  Scotland  were  collecting  to  march 
against  their  undisciplined  army,  ill -pro  video  as  it  was 
with  arms,  and  at  variance  concerning  the  causes  which 
had  brought  them  to  the  field. 

While  the  insurgents  were  thus  quarrelling  among  them- 
selves, and  incapable  of  taking  any  care  of  their  common 
cause,  the  Privy  Council  ordered  out  the  militia,  and  sum- 
moned to  arms  the  vassals  of  the  Crown  ;  many  of  whom, 
being  inclined  to  Presbytery,  came  forth  with  no  small 
reluctance.  The  Highland  chiefs  who  lay  near  the 
scene  of  action,  were  also  ordered  to  attend  the  King's 
host  with  their  followers. 

But  when  the  news  of  the  insurrection  reached  Lon- 
don, Charles  II.,  employing  for  a  season  his  own  good 
judgment,  which  he  too  often  yielded  to  the  management 
of  others,  seems  to  have  formed  an  idea  of  conciliating 
the  rebels,  as  well  as  of  subduing  them.  For  this  pur- 
pose, he  sent  to  Scotland,  as  Commander-in-chief,  his 


50  IiUKE    OF    MONMOUTH    SENT    TO    SCOTLAND. 

natural  son,  James,  Dnke  of  Monmomh,  at  the  head  ol 
a  large  body  of  the  royal  guards.  This  young  nobleman 
was  the  King's  favourite,  both  from  the  extreme  beauty 
of  his  person,  and  the  amiablencss  of  his  disposition. 
Charles  had  taken  care  of  his  fortune,  by  uniting  him 
with  the  heiress  of  the  great  family  of  Uuccleuch,  whoae 
large  estates  are  still  enjoyed  by  their  descendants. 
Wealthy,  popular,  and  his  father's  favourite,  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth  had  been  encouraged  to  oppose  his  own  court 
influence  to  that  of  the  King's  brother,  the  Duke  of 
York  ;  and  as  the  latter  had  declared  himself  a  Roman 
Catholic,  so  Monmouth,  to  mark  the  distinction  betwixt 
them,  was  supposed  to  be  favourable  to  Presbyterians,  as 
well  as  dissenters  of  any  sect,  and  was  popularly  called 
The  Protestant  Duke.  It  was  naturally  supposed  that, 
having  such  inclinations,  he  was  intrusted  with  some 
powers  favourable  to  the  insurgents. 

These  unfortunate  persons  having  spent  a  great  deal  of 
time  in  debating  on  church  polemics,  and  employed  no 
part  of  it  in  disciplining  their  army,  or  supplying  them  with 
provisions,  were  still  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town 
of  Hamilton,  while  numbers,  despairing  of  their  success, 
were  every  day  deserting  them.  ON  the  21st  of  June, 
they  were  alarmed  by  the  intelligence,  that  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth  was  advancing  at  the  head  of  a  well-disciplin- 
ed army.  This  did  not  recall  them  to  their  senses ;  they 
held  a  council,  indeed,  but  it  was  only  to  engage  in  a  fu- 
rious debate,  which  lasted  until  Kathillet  told  them  his 
sword  was  drawn,  as  well  against  those  who  accepted  the 
Indulgence,  as  against  the  curates,  and  withdrew  from  the 
council  after  this  defiance,  followed  by  those  who  pro- 
fessed his  principles. 

The  moderate  party,  thus  left  to  themselves,  drew  up  a 
Supplication  to  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  and  after  describ- 
ing their  intolerable  grievances,  declared  that  they  were 
willing  to  submit  all  controversies  to  a  free  Parliament, 
and  a  free  assembly  of  the  Church. 

The  Duke,  in  reply,  expressed  compassion  for  their 
condition,  and  a  wish  to  alleviate  it  by  his  intercession  with 


BATTLE   OF   BOTHWELL   BRIDGE.  51 

th?  King,  but  declared,  they  must  in  the  interim  lay 
down  their  arms.  When  they  received  this  message, 
the  insurgent  troops  were  in  the  greatest  disorder,  the 
violent  party  having  chosen  this  unfortunate  moment 
for  cashiering  the  officers  whom  they  had  formerly 
chosen,  and  nominating  others  who  had  no  taint  of 
Erastianism  or  Malignity;  in  other  words,  no  disposi- 
tion to  acknowledge  any  allegiance  to  the  King,  or 
submission  to  the  civil  power.  While  they  were  thus 
employed,  the  troops  of  Monmouth  appeared  in  sight 

The  insurgents  were  well  posted  for  defence.  They 
had  in  front  the  Clyde,  a  deep  river,  not  easily  fordable, 
and  only  to  be  crossed  by  BotliweU  Bridge,  which  gives 
name  to  the  battle.  This  is,  (or  rather  was,  for  though 
it  still  exists,  it  is  now  much  altered,)  a  high,  sleep,  and 
narrow  bridge,  having  a  portal,  or  gateway,  in  the  centre, 
which  the  insurgents  had  shut  and  barricaded.  About 
three  hundred  men  were  stationed  to  defend  this  important 
pass,  under  Rathillet,  Balfour,  and  others.  They  behav- 
ed well,  and  made  a  stout  defence,  till  the  soldiers  of  Mon- 
mouth forced  the  pass  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The 
insurgents  then  gave  way,  and  the  royal  army  advanced 
towards  the  main  body,  who,  according  to  the  historian 
Burnet,  seem  neither  to  have  bad  the  grace  to  submit,  the 
courage  to  fight,  nor  the  sense  to  run  away.  They  stood 
a  few  minutes  in  doubt  and  confusion,  their  native  courage 
and  enthusiasm  frozen  by  the  sense  of  discord  amongst 
themselves,  arid  the  sudden  approach  of  an  arrny  superior 
m  discipline.  At  length,  as  the  artillery  began  to  play 
upon  them,  and  the  horse  and  Highlanders  were  about  to 
charge,  they  gave  way  without  resistance,  and  dispersed 
like  a  flock  of  sheep. 

The  gentle-tempered  Duke  of  Monmouth  gave  strict 
orders  to  aiFord  quarter  to  all  who  asked  it,  and  to  m;ike 
prisoners,  but  spare  lives.  Considerable  slaughter,  it  is 
said,  took  place,  notwithstanding  his  orders,  partly  owing 
(j  the  unrelenting  temper  of  Claverhonse,  who  was  burn- 
ii6  to  obtain  vengeance  for  the  defeat  of  Drumclog,  and 
'.*.  death  of  his  kinsman,  who  was  slain  there ;  and  partly 


52  BATTLE    OF    BOTHWEI.L    BRIDGE. 

to  the  fury  of  the  English  soldiers  and  the  Scottish  High 
landers,  who  distinguished  themselves  by  their  cruelty. 

Four  hundred  men  were  killed  at  the  battle  of  Both 
well  Bridge,  and  about  twelve  hundred  made  prisoners 
These  last  were  marched  to  Edinburgh  and  imprisoned  ir. 
the  Greyfriars'  Church-yard,  like  cattle  in  a  pen-fold, 
while  several  ministers  and  others  were  selected  for  exe- 
cution. The  rest,  after  long  confinement  there,  and  with- 
out any  shelter  save  what  they  found  in  the  tombs,  were 
dismissed,  upon  giving  bonds  for  conformity  in  future,  and 
the  more  obstinate  were  sent  as  slaves  to  the  plantations. 
Many  of  the  last  class  were  lost  at  sea.  Arid  yet,  not- 
withstanding these  disasters,  the  more  remote  consequen- 
ces of  the  battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge  were  even  more 
calamitous  than  those  which  were  direct  and  immediate. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TJie  Diike  of  York's  Administration  of  Affairs  in  Scot- 
land— Persecution  of  the  Cameronians — The  Jerms- 
wood  and  Rye-House  Plots — Death  of  Charles  II. 

THE  efforts  made  by  Monmouth  obtained  an  indemnity 
which  was  ill-observed,  and  a  limited  indulgence  which 
was  speedily  recalled  ;  and  instead  of  the  healing  meas- 
ures which  were  expected,  severe  inquisition  was  made 
into  the  conduct  of  the  western  proprietors,  accused  of 
favouring  the  insurrection,  and  that  of  the  gentlemen  \\].r. 
had  failed  to  give  attendance  in  the  King's  hr.st,  when 
assembled  to  put  it  down.  The  excuses  made  for  this 
desertion  of  duty  were  singular  enough,  being,  in  many 
cases,  a  frank  confession  of  the  defaulters'  fear  of  dis- 
quiet from  their  wives,  some  of  whom  invoked  bitter 
curses  on  their  husbands,  if  they  took  either  horse  or  man 
to  do  prejudice  to  the  fanatics  who  were  in  arms.  To 
these  excuses  the  court  paid  no  heed,  but  fined  the  ah 


DUKE    OF    YORK'S    ARRIVAL,    IN    SCOTLAND.  5.1 

setitees  heavily,  and  even  threatened  forfeiture  of  jeir 
lands. 

The  mild  influence  of  Monmouth  in  the  administration 
of  Scotland  lasted  but  a  short  while  ;  and  that  of  Lauder- 
dale,  though  that  nobleman  was  now  loaded  with  age  as 
well  as  obloquy,  in  a  great  measure  revived,  until  it  was 
superseded  by  the  arrival  in  Scotland  of  the  King's  broth- 
er, and  heir  presumptive  of  the  throne,  James  Duke  of 
York. 

We  have  already  said  that  this  Prince  was  a  Catholic, 
and  indeed  it  was  his  religion  which  had  occasioned  his 
exile,  first  to  Brussels,  and  now  to  Scotland.  The  King 
consented  to  his  brother's  banishment  as  an  unavoidable 
measure,  the  utmost  odium  having  been  excited  against 
all  Catholics,  by  the  alleged  discovery  of  a  plot  amongst 
the  Papists,  to  rise  upon  and  massacre  the  Protestants, 
depose  the  King,  and  put  his  brother  on  the  throne.  The 
whole  structure  of  this  story  is  now  allowed  to  have  been 
gross  lies  and  forgeries,  but  at  this  period,  to  doubt  it  was 
to  be  as  bad  as  the  Papists  themselves.  The  first  fury  of 
national  prejudice  having  begun  to  subside,  James  was 
recalled  from  Brussels  to  Scotland,  in  order  to  be  nearer 
his  brother,  though  still  at  such  a  distance  as  should  not 
again  arouse  the  jealousy  of  the  irritable  Protestants. 

The  Duke  of  York  was  of  a  character  very  different 
from  his  brother  Charles.  He  had  neither  that  monarch's 
wit  nor  his  levity,  was  fond  of  business,  and  capable  of 
yielding  strict  attention  to  it,  and,  without  being  penurious, 
might  be  considered  as  an  economist.  He  was  attached 
to  his  religion,  with  a  sincerity  honourable  to  him  as  a  man, 
but  unhappy  for  him  as  a  prince,  destined  to  reign  over  a 
Protestant  people.  He  was  severe  even  to  cruelty,  and 
nourished  the  same  high  idea  of  the  divine  right  of  kings, 
and  the  duty  of  complete  submission  on  the  part  of  sub- 
jects, which  was  the  original  cause  of  his  father's  mis- 
fortunes. 

On  the  Duke  of  York's  arrival  in  Scotland,  he  was 
received  with  great  marks  of  honour  and  welcome  by  the 


54        CHARACTER  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

nobles  and  gentry,  and  occupied  the  palace  of  Holyrocxi, 
which  had  been  long  untenanted  by  royalty.  He  exert- 
ed himself  much  to  conciliate  the  affections  of  the  Scot- 
tish persons  of  condition  ;  and  his  grave  and  lofty,  yet 
courteous  manners,  suited  well  the  character  of  a  people, 
who,  proud  and  reserved  themselves,  willingly  pay  much 
respect  to  the  etiquette  of  rank,  providing  those  entitled 
to  such  deference  are  contented  to  admit  their  claims  to 
respect  in  return. 

The  Duke  of  York,  it  is  said,  became  aware  of  the 
punctilious  character  of  the  Scottish  nation,  from  a  speech 
of  the  well  known  Tom  Dalziel.  The  Duke  had  invited 
this  old  cavalier  to  dine  in  private  with  him,  and  with  his 
Duchess,  Mary  of  Este,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Modena. 
This  princess  chose  to  consider  it  as  a  derogation  from 
her  rank  to  admit  a  subject  to  her  table,  and  refused  to 
sit  down  to  dinner  if  Dalziel  should  remain  as  a  visiter. 
"  Madam,"  said  the  undismayed  veteran,  "  I  have  dined 
at  a  table  where  your  father  might  have  stood  at  my  back." 
He  alluded  to  that  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  whom 
the  Duke  of  Modena  must,  if  summoned,  have  attended 
as  an  officer  of  the  household.  The  spirit  of  the  answer 
is  said  to  have  determined  James,  while  holding  inter- 
course with  the  Scottish  nobles  and  gentry,  to  exercise  as 
much  affability  as  he  could  command  or  affect,  which,  with 
the  gravity  and  dignity  of  his  manners,  gave  him  great 
influence  among  all  that  approached  his  person.  He  paid 
particular  attention  to  the  chiefs  of  Highland  clans,  made 
himself  acquainted  with  their  different  interests  and  char- 
acters, and  exerted  himself  to  adjust  and  reconcile  their 
feuds.  By  such  means,  he  acquired  among  this  primitive 
sace,  alike  sensible  to  kind  treatment,  and  resentful  of 
injury  or  neglect,  so  great  an  ascendency,  that  it  continued 
to  be  felt  in  the  second  generation  of  his  family. 

The  Duke  of  York,  a  Catholic  and  a  Prince,  was  in 
both  capacities  disposed  to  severity  against  fanatics  and 
insurgents  ;  so  that  his  presence  and  interference  in  Scot- 
tish affairs  increased  the  disposition  to  severity  against 
Presbyterans  of  every  shade  and  modification.  But  it 


PERSECUTION    OF    THE    CAMERONIANS.  55 

was  on  liis  return,  after  a  short  visit  to  London,  dining 
tvhich  he  had  ascertained  that  his  brother's  affection  for 
him  was  undiminished,  that  he  ventured  to  proceed  to  ex- 
tremities in  suppressing  nonconformists. 

The  doctrines  promulgated  by  the  more  fierce  and  un- 
reasonable insurgents,  in  their  camp  at  Hamilton,  were 
now  adopted  by  the  numerous  and  increasing  sect,  who 
separated  their  cause  entirely  from  that  of  the  moderate 
Presbyterians.  These  men  disowned  altogether  the  King's 
authority,  and  that  of  the  government,  and  renounced  the 
title  of  all  pretenders  to  the  throne,  who  would  not  sub- 
scribe to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  govern 
according  to  its  principles.  These  doctrines  were  chiefly 
enforced  by  two  preachers,  named  Cargill  and  Cameron, 
from  the  last  of  whom  their  followers  assumed,  or  acquir- 
ed, the  title  of  Cameronians. 

Richard  Cameron  laboured  and  died  in  a  manner  not 
unworthy  of  his  high  pretensions,  as  the  founder  of  a  re* 
Hgious  sect.  He  continued  in  open  resistance  after  the 
battle  of  Bothwell  Bridge  ;  and  upon  the  22d  of  June. 
1680,  occupied  the  little  burgh  of  Sanquhar  with  a  small 
party  of  armed  horsemen,  and  published  a  paper,  or  Tes- 
timony, formally  disowning  the  authority  of  the  King,  and 
proclaiming  that,  by  injustice  and  tyranny,  he  had  for- 
feited the  throne.  After  this  bold  step,  Cameron,  being 
closely  pursued,  roamed  through  the  more  desolate  places 
of  the  country,  with  a  few  friends  in  arms',  of  whom 
Hackston  of  Rathillet,  famous  for  his  share  in  the  death 
of  Archbishop  Sharpe,  was  the  principal. 

But,  upon  22d  July  1680,  while  laying  at  a  desolate 
place,  called  Airs  Moss,  they  were  alarmed  with  the  news, 
that  Bruce  of  Earlshall  was  coming  upon  them  with  a 
superior  force  of  infantry  and  dragoons.  The  Wanderers 
resolved  to  stand  their  ground,  and  Cameron  pronounced 
a  prayer,  in  which  he  three  times  repeated  the  pathetic; 
expression,  "  Lord,  spare  the  green  and  take  the  ripe." 
He  then  addressed  his  followers  with  great  firmness,  ex 
honing  them  to  fight  to  the  very  last,  "  For  I  see,"  he 


56  PERSECUTION    OF 

added,  "  heaven's  gates  open  to  receive  all  such  as  shall 
die  this  day." 

Rathillet  divided  their  handful  of  twenty-three  horse 
upon  the  two  flanks  of  about  forty  half-armed  infantry. 
The  soldiers  approached,  and  charged  with  fury.  Cam- 
eron was  killed  on  the  spot.  Rathillet  fought  with  great 
bravery,  but  was  at  length  overpowered,  struck  dowii,  and 
made  prisoner. 

In  the  barbarous  spirit  of  the  age,  the  seizure  of  Hack- 
ston  was  celebrated  as  a  kind  of  triumph,  and  all  possible 
insult  was  heaped  on  the  unhappy  man.  He  was  brought 
into  Edinburgh,  mounted  on  a  horse  without  a  saddle,  and 
having  his  face  to  the  tail.  The  head  and  hands  of  Rich- 
ard Cameron  were  borne  before  him  on  pikes.  But  such 
insults  rather  arouse  than  break  the  spirits  of  brave  men. 
Hackston  behaved  witti  great  courage  before  the  Council. 
The  Chancellor  having  upbraided  him  as  a  man  of  liber- 
tine habits,  "  While  I  was  so,"  he  replied,  "  I  was  ac- 
ceptable to  your  lordship  ;  I  only  lost  your  favour  when 
I  renounced  my  vices."  The  Archbishop's  death  being 
alleged  against  him  as  a  murder,  he  replied,  that  Heaven 
would  decide  which  were  the  greatest  murderers,  himself, 
or  those  who  sat  in  judgment  on  him.  He  was  executed 
with  circumstances  of  protracted  cruelty.  Both  his  hands 
were  cut  off  before  execution,  and  his  heart  torn  from  his 
bosom  before  he  was  quite  dead.  .  His  head,  with  that  of 
Cameron,  was  fixed  on  the  Netherbow  Port,  the  hands  of 
the  former  being  extended,  as  if  in  the  act  of  prayer. 
One  of  the  enemies  of  his  party  gave  Cameron  this  tes- 
timony on  the  occasion  :  "  Here  are  the  relics  of  a  man 
who  lived  praying  and  preaching,  and  died  praying  and 
fighting." 

Daniel,  or  Donald  Cargill,  took  up  the  banner  of  the 
sect,  which  had  fallen  from  Cameron's  dying  hand.  He 
avouched  its  tenets  as  boldly  as  his  predecessor,  and  at  a 
large  conventicle  of  Cameronians,  held  in  the  Torwood. 
September  1680,  had  the  audacity  to  pronounce  sentence 
of  excommunication  against  the  King,  the  Duke  of  York, 
die  Dukes  ot  Monmouth,  Lauderdale,  and  Rothes,  the 


THE    CAMERONIANS.  57 

Lord  Advocate,  and  General  Dalziel.  This  proceeding 
was  entirely  uncanonical,  and  contrary  lo  the  rules  of  the 
Scottish  Presbyterian  church  ;  but  it  assorted  well  with 
the  uncompromising  spirit  of  the  Hill-men,  or  Camero- 
nians,  who  desired  neither  to  give  nor  receive  favours  from 
those  whom  they  termed  God's  enemies. 

A  high  reward  being  put  upon  Cargill's  head,  he  was, 
not  long  afterwards,  taken  by  a  Dumfriesshire  gentleman, 
and  executed,  along  with  four  others,  all  disowning  the 
authority  of  the  King.  The  firmness  with  which  these 
men  met  death,  tended  to  confirm  the  good  opinion  of  the 
spectators  ;  and  though  the  Cameronian  doctrines  were 
too  wild  to  be  adopted  by  men  ol  sense  and  education, 
yet  they  spread  among  the  inferior  ranks,  and  were  pro- 
ductive of  much  mischief. 

Thus,  persecution,  long  and  unsparingly  exercised, 
drove  a  part  of  an  oppressed  peasantry  into  wild  and  per- 
ilous doctrines ;  dangerous,  if  acted  upon,  not  only  to  the 
existing  tyranny,  but  to  any  other  form  of  government, 
how  moderate  soever.  It  was,  considering  the  frantic 
severity  of  the  Privy  Council,  a  mucli  greater  wonder  that 
they  had  not  sooner  stirred  up  a  spirit  of  determined  and 
avowed  opposition  to  their  government,  than  that  such 
should  now  have  arisen.  Nevertheless,  blind  to  experi- 
ence, the  Duke  of  York,  who  had  now  completely  su- 
perseded LauderdaJe  in  the  management  of  the  Scottish 
affairs,  continued  to  attempt  the  extirpation  of  the  Came- 
ronian sect,  by  the  very  same  violent  means  which  had 
occasioned  its  formation. 

All  usual  forms  of  law,  all  the  bulwarks  by  which  the 
subjects  of  a  country  are  protected  against  the  violence  of 
armed  power,  were  at  once  broken  down,  and  officers  and 
soldiers  received  commissions  not  only  to  apprehend,  but 
to  interrogate  and  punish,  any  persons  whom  they  might 
suspect  of  fanatical  principles  ;  and  if  they  thought  prop- 
er, they  might  put  them  to  death  upon  the  spot.  All  that 
was  necessary  to  condemnation  was,  that  the  individuals 
seized  upon  should  scruple  to  renounce  the  Covenant — or 
should  hesitate  to  admit,  that  the  dea|h  of  Sharpe  was  an 


68  PERSECUTION    OF 

act  of  murder — or  should  refuse  to  pray  for  /he  King-— 
or  to  answer  any  other  ensnaring  or  captic  s  question! 
concerning  their  religious  principles. 

A  scene  of  this  kind  is  told  with  great  simplicity  and 
effect  by  one  of  the  writers  of  the  period  ;  and  I  am  truly 
sorry  that  Claverhouse,  whom,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, we  shall  find  acting  a  heroic  part,  was  a  principal 
agent  in  this  act  of  cruelty.  Nor,  considering  the  cold- 
blooded and  savage  barbarity  of  the  deed,  can  we  admit 
the  excuse  either  of  the  orders  under  which  he  acted,  01 
of  the  party  prejudices  of  the  time,  or  of  the  condition 
of  the  sufferer  as  a  rebel  and  outlaw,  to  diminish  our  un- 
qualified detestation  of  it. 

There  lived  at  this  gloomy  period,  at  a  place  called 
Preshill,  or  Priesthill,  in  Lanarkshire,  a  man  named  John 
Brown,  a  carrier  by  profession,  and  called,  from  his  zealous 
religious  principles,  the  Christian  Carrier.  This  man  had 
been  out  with  the  insurgents  at  Bothwell  Bridge,  and  was 
for  other  reasons  amenable  to  the  cruelty  of  the  existing 
laws.  On  a  morning  of  May,  1685,  Peden,  one  of  the 
Cameronian  ministers,  whom  Brown  had  sheltered  in  his 
house,  took  his  leave  of  his  host  and  his  wife,  repeating 
twice, — "  Poor  woman  !  a  fearful  morning — a  dark  and 
misty  morning  !" — words  which  were  afterwards  believed 
to  be  prophetic  of  calamity.  When  Peden  was  gone, 
Brown  left  his  house  with  a  spade  in  his  hand  for  his  or- 
dinary labour,  when  he  was  suddenly  surrounded  ana 
arrested  by  a  band  of  horse,  with  Claverhouse  at  their 
head.  Although  the  prisoner  had  a  hesitation  in  his  speech 
upon  ordinary  occasions,  he  answered  the  questions  which 
were  put  to  him  in  this  extremity  with  such  composure 
and  firmness,  that  Claverhouse  asked  whether  he  was  a 
preacher.  He  was  answered  in  the  negative.  "If  he 
has  not  preached,"  said  Claverhouse,  "mickle  hath  he 
prayed  in  his  time.  But  betake  you  now  to  your  pray- 
ers for  the  last  time,  (addressing  the  sufferer,)  for  you 
shall  presently  die."  The  poor  man  kneeled  down  and 
prayed  with  zeal,  and  when  he  was  touching  on  the  polit- 
cal  state  of  the  country,  and  praying  that  Heaven  would 


THE    CAMERONIAN3.  59 

spare  a  remnant,  Claverhouse,  interrupting  him,  said,  "  I 
gave  you  leave  to  pray,  and  you  are  preaching."  "  Sir," 
answered  the  prisoner,  turning  towards  his  judge  on  his 
knees,  "  you  know  nothing  either  of  preaching  or  pray- 
ing, if  you  call  what  I  now  say  preaching  ;"  then  contin- 
ued without  confusion.  When  his  devotions  were  ended, 
Claverhouse  commanded  him  to  bid  good  night  to  his  wife 
and  children.  Brown  turned  towards  them,  and  taking  his 
wife  by  the  hand,  told  her  that  the  hour  was  come  which 
he  had  spoken  of,  when  he  first  asked'  her  consent  to  marry 
him.  The  poor  woman  answered  firmly, — "  In  this  cause 
I  am  willing  to  resign  you." — "  Then  have  1  nothing  to  do 
save  to  die,"  he  replied  ;  "  and  I  thank  God  I  have  been 
in  a  frame  to  meet  death  for  many  years/'  He  was  shot 
dead  by  a  party  of  soldiers  at  the  end  of  his  own  house  ; 
and  although  his  wife  was  of  a  nervous  habit,  and  used  to 
become  sick  at  the  sight  of  blood,  she  had  on  this  occasion 
strength  enough  to  support  the  dreadful  scene  without 
fainting  or  confusion,  only  her  eyes  dazzled  when  the  car- 
abines were  fired. — While  her  husband's  dead  body  lay 
stretched  before  him,  Claverhouse  asked  her  what  she 
thought  of  her  husband  now.  "  I  ever  thought  much  of 
him,"  she  replied,  "  and  now  more  than  ever."  "  It 
were  but  justice,"  said  Claverhouse,  "  to  lay  thee  be- 
side him."  "  I  doubt  not,"  she  replied,  "  that  if  you 
were  permitted,  your  cruelty  would  carry  you  that  length. 
But  how  will  you  answer  for  this  morning's  work?" — 
"  To  man  I  can  be  answerable,"  said  Claverhouse,  "  and 
Heaven  I  will  take  in  my  own  hand."  He  then  mounted 
his  horse  and  marched,  and  left  her  with  the  corpse  of  her 
husband  lying  beside  her,  and  her  fatherless  infant  in  her 
arms.  "  She  placed  the  child  on  the  ground,"  says  the 
narrative,  with  scriptural  simplicity,  "  tied  up  the  corpse's 
head,  and  straighted  the  limbs,  and  covered  him  with  her 
plaid,  and  sat  down  and  wept  over  him." 

The  persecuted  and  oppressed  fanatics  showed  upon  all 
occasions  the  same  undaunted  firmness,  nor  did  the  women 
fall  short  of  the  men  in  fortitude.  Two  of  them  under- 
went the  punishment  of  death,  by  drowning ;  for  which 


60  TEST    OATH. 

purpose  they  were  chained  to  posts  within  the  flood-mark 
and  exposed  to  the  fury  of  the  advancing  tide,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  they  were  offered  rescue  from  the  ap- 
proaching billows,  the  sound  of  which  was  roaring  in  their 
ears,  if  they  would  but  condescend  so  far  as  to  say,  Cod 
save  the  King.  "  Consider,"  said  the  well-meaning 
friends  around  them,  "  it  is  your  duty  to  pray  even  for 
the  greatest  sinner." — "  But  we  are  not  to  do  so,"  said 
the  elder  female,  "  at  the  bidding  of  every  profligate." 
Her  place  of  execution  being  nearer  the  advancing  tide, 
she  was  first  drowned  ;  and  her  younger  companion  hav- 
ing said  something,  as  if  she  desired  the  King's  salvation, 
the  bystanders  would  have  saved  her  ;  but  when  she  was 
dragged  out  of  the  waves,  half  strangled,  she  chose  to  be 
replunged  into  them,  rather  than  abjure  the  covenant. 
She  died  accordingly. 

But  it  was  not  the  common  people  and  the  fanatics 
alone  who  were  vexed  and  harassed  with  unreasonable 
oaths.  Those  of  higher  rank  were  placed  in  equal  dan- 
ger, by  a  test  oath,  of  a  complex  and  puzzling  nature,  and 
so  far  inconsistent  with  itself,  that  while,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  person  who  took  it  was  to  profess  his  full  belief  and 
compliance  with  the  Confession  of  Faith  adopted  by  the 
Scottish  Church  in  the  First  Parliament  of  King  James 
VI.,  he  was  in  the  next  clause  made  to  acknowledge  the 
King  as  supreme  head  of  the  Church  ;  a  proposition  en- 
tirely inconsistent  with  that  very  Confession  which  he  had 
just  recognised.  Nevertheless,  this  test  was  considered 
as  a  general  pledge  of  loyalty  to  be  taken  by  every  one 
to  whom  it  should  be  tendered,  under  pain  of  ruinous  fines, 
confiscations,  and  even  death  itself.  The  case  of  the  Earl 
of  Argyle  was  distinguished,  even  in  those  oppressive 
times,  for  its  peculiar  injustice. 

This  nobleman  was  the  son  of  the  marquis  who  was 
beheaded  at  the  commencement  of  this  reign,  and  he  him- 
self, as  we  have  already  mentioned,  had  been  placed  in 
danger  of  losing  life  and  lands,  by  a  most  oppressive  pro- 
ceeding on  the  obsolete  statute  of  leasing-making.  He 
was  now  subjected  to  a  severer  storm.  When  the  oath 


ESCAPE    OF    THE    EAUL    OF    AKGYI.E.  61 

was  tendered  to  him,  as  a  Privy-Counsellor,  he  declared 
he  took  it  so  far  as  it  was  consistent  with  itself,  and  with 
the  Protestant  religion.  Such  a  qualification,  it  might 
have  been  thought,  was  entirely  blameless  arid  unexcep- 
tionable. And  yet  for  having  added  this  explanation  to 
the  oath  which  he  was  required  to  take,  Argyle  was  thrown 
into  prison,  and  brought  to  the  bar  as  guilty  of  treason  and 
leasing-making.  He  was  found  guilty,  and  sentence  of 
death  and  forfeiture  was  pronounced  against  him  as  a  trai- 
tor. It  has  been  plausibly  alleged,  that  government  only 
used  this  proceeding,  to  wring  from  the  unfortunate  Earl 
a  surrender  of  his  jurisdictions  ;  but,  very  prudently,  he 
did  not  choose  to  trust  his  life  on  so  precarious  a  tenure. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  Peers  who  still  professed  an  at- 
tachment to  the  Presbyterian  religion  j  and  the  enemies 
who  had  abused  the  laws  so  grossly  to  obtain  his  condem- 
nation, were  sufficiently  likely  to  use  the  advantage  to  the 
uttermost.  He  escaped  from  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh, 
disguised  in  his  sister's  clothe?,  and  went  ovei  to  Hol- 
land. 

This  extravagant  proceeding  struck  general  terror, 
from  its  audacious  violation  of  justice,  while  the  gross 
fallacy  on  which  it  rested  was  the  subject  of  general  con- 
tempt. Even  the  children  educated  in  George  Heriot's 
Hospital,  (a  charity  on  a  plan  similar  to  that  of  Christ 
Church  in  London,)  turned  into  ridicule  the  proceedings 
on  this  iniquitous  trial.  They  voted  that  their  yard  dog 
was  a  person  under  trust,  and  that  the  test,  therefore, 
should  be  tendered  to  him.  Poor  Watch,  you  may  believe, 
only  smelled  at  the  paper  on  which  his  oath  was  printed, 
and  would  pay  no  more  attention  to  it.  Upon  this,  the 
paper  was  again  offered,  having  been  rubbed  over  with 
butter,  which  induced  the  mastiff  to  swallow  it.  This 
was  called  taking  the  test  with  a  qualification,  and  the  dog 
was  adjudged  to  be  hanged  as  a  leasing-maksr,  and  per 
verier  of  the  laws  of  the  kingdom. 

The  gross  violence  of  these  proceedings  awakened  re 
sentment  as  well  as  fear.     But  fear  was  at  first  predoip 


62  THE    JEKYISWOOD    AND 

Inant.  Upwards  of  thirty-six  noblemen  and  gentlemen, 
attached  to  the  Presbyterian  religion,  resolved  to  sell  their 
property  in  Scotland,  and  remove  themselves  to  America, 
where  they  might  live  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
conscience.  A  deputation  of  their  number,  Lord  Mel- 
ville, Sir  John  Cochrane,  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  and  ord- 
ers, went  to  London  to  prepare  for  this  emigration.  Here 
the  secret  was  imparted  to  them,  of  an  enterprise  formed 
by  Monmouth,  Shaftesbury,  Lord  Russell,  and  Algernon 
Sidney,  to  alter  the  government  under  Charles  II :  and, 
at  all  events,  to  prevent,  by  the  most  forcible  means,  the 
Duke  of  York's  ascent  to  the  throne,  in  case  of  the  King's 
death.  The  Scottish  malcontents  abandoned  their  plan 
of  emigration,  to  engage  in  this  new  and  more  adventu- 
rous scheme.  Walter  Scott,  Earl  of  Tarras,  brother-in- 
law  of  the  Earl  of  Monmouth,  undertook  for  a  rising  in  the 
south  of  Scotland  ;  and  many  of  his  name  and  kindred,  as 
well  as  other  gentlemen  of  the  Borders  of  Scotland,  en- 
gaged in  the  plot.  One  gentleman  who  was  invited  to  join, 
excused  himself,  on  account  of  the  ominous  sound  of  the 
titles  of  two  of  the  persona  engaged.  He  did  not,  he 
said,  like  such  words  as  Gallowshiels  and  Hangingshaw. 

Besides  the  Scottish  plot,  and  that  which  was  conduct- 
ed by  Russell  and  Sidney  in  London,  there  were  in  that 
city  some  desperate  men,  of  a  subordinate  description, 
who  proposed  to  simplify  the  purpose  of  both  the  principal 
conspiracies,  by  putting  the  King  to  death  as  he  passed  by 
a  place  called  the  Rye-House.  This  last  plot  becoming 
public,  was  the  means  of  defeating  the  others.  But  al- 
though Campbell  of  Cessnock,  Baillie  of  Jerviswood.  and 
some  conspirators  of  less  consequence,  were  arrested,  the 
escape  of  most  of  the  persons  concerned,  partly  disap- 
pointed the  revenge  of  the  government.  The  circum- 
stances attending  some  of  these  escapes  were  singular. 

Lord  Melville  was  about  to  come  to  Edinburgh  from  his 
residence  in  Fife,  and  had  sent  his  principal  domestic,  a 
Highlander,  named  MacArthur,  to  make  preparations  for 
his  arrival  in  town.  The  Justice-General  was  friendly  to 
Lord  Melville.  He  had  that  morning  issued  warrants  foi 


RYE-HOUSE    PL.OTS. 


63 


uis  arrest,  and  desired  to  put  him  on  his  guard,  but  durst 
take  no  steps  to  do  so.  Happening  to  see  Lord  Melville's 
valet  on  ttie  street,  he  bent  his  eye  significantly  on  him, 
and  asked,  "  What  are  you  doing  here  ?  Get  back,  you 
Highland  dog  !"  The  man  began  to  say  he  was  making 
preparations  for  his  master  coming  to  town,  when  the  Jus- 
tice again  interrupted  him,  saying,  angrily,  "  Get  home, 
you  Highland  dog  !"  and  then  passed  on.  MacArthur 
was  sensible  of  the  dangerous  temper  of  the  times,  and 
upon  receiving  such  a  hint,  slight  as  it  was,  from  such  a 
man,  he  resolved  to  go  back  to  his  master.  At  the  Ferry 
he  saw  a  party  of  the  guards,  embarking  on  the  same 
voyage.  Making  every  exertion,  he  got  home  time  enough 
to  alarm  his  lord,  who  immediately  absconded,  and  soon 
after  got  over  to  Holland. 

Sir  Patrick  Hume  of  Polwarth,  afterwards  Lord 
Marchmont,  had  a  still  more  narrow  escape.  The  party 
of  guards  sent  to  arrest  him  had  stopped  at  the  house  of  a 
friend  to  the  government  to  get  refreshments,  which  were 
amply  supplied  to  them.  The  lady  of  the  house,  who  se- 
cretly favoured  the  Presbyterian  interest,  connected  the 
appearance  of  this  party,  and  the  inquiries  which  they 
made  concerning  the  road  to  Polwarth  Castle,  with  some 
danger  threatened  to  Sir  Patrick  Hume.  She  dared  not 
write  to  .apprize  him,  and  still  less  durst  she  trust  a  mes- 
senger with  any  verbal  communication.  She  therefore 
wrapt  up  a  feather  in  a  blank  piece  of  paper,  and  sent  it 
over  the  hills  by  a  boy,  while  she  detained  the  military 
party  as  long  as  she  could,  without  exciting  suspicion.  In 
the  meantime,  Sir  Patrick  received  the  token,  and  his 
acute  apprehension  being  rendered  yet  more  penetrating 
by  a  sense  of  danger,  he  at  once  comprehended  that  the 
feather  was  meait  to  convey  a  hint  to  him  that  he  should 
fly. 

Having  been  long  peculiarly  odious  to  the  government 
Sir  Patrick  could  think  of  no  secure  retreat  above  ground 
A  subterranean  vault  in  Polwarth  churchyard,  being  the 
place  in  which  his  ancestors  were  buried,  seemed  the  only 
safe  place  of  refuge.      The  soh  li^ht  admitted  into  this 


04  THE    JKKVISWOOD    AND 

dreary  cell  was  by  a  small  slit  at  one  end.  A  trusty  do- 
mestic contrived  to  convey  a  bed  and  bed-clothes  to  this 
dismal  place,  and  here  Sir  Patrick  lay  concealed  during 
me  strict  search  which  was  made  for  him  in  every  direc- 
tion. His  daughter,  Cri/ell  Hume,  then  about  eighteen 
years  of  age,  was  intrusted  with  the  task  of  conveying 
him  food,  which  could  be  only  brought  to  the  vault  at 
midnight.  She  had  been  brought  up  in  the  usual  super- 
stitions of  the  times,  about  ghosts  and  apparitions,  but  the 
duty  which  she  was  discharging  to  her  lather  banished  all 
such  childish  fears.  When  she  returned  from  her  first 
journey,  her  mother  asked  her  if  she  was  not  frightened 
in  going  through  the  churchyard.  She  answered,  that 
she  had  felt  fear  for  nothing  except  the  minister's  dogs, 
(the  manse  being  nigh  the  church,)  which  had  kept  such 
a  barking  as  to  alarm  her  for  a  discovery.  Her  mother 
sent  for  the  clergyman  next  morning,  and  by  pretending 
an  alarm  for  mad  dogs,  prevailed  on  him  to  destroy  them 
or  shut  them  up. 

But  it  was  not  enough  to  have  a  faithful  messenger  ; 
much  precaution  was  also  necessary,  to  secure  secretly, 
and  by  stealth,  the  provisions  for  the  unfortunate  recluse, 
since,  if  the  victuals  had  been  taken  openly,  the  servants 
must  naturally  have  suspected  the  purpose  to  which  they 
were  to  be  applied.  Grizell  Hume  used,  therefore,  to 
abstract  from  the  table,  as  secretly  as  she  could,  a  portion 
of  the  family  dinner.  Sir  Patrick  Hume  was  fond  of 
sheep's  head,  (being  a  good  Scotsman  in  all  respects,) 
and  Grizell,  aware  of  her  father's  taste,  had  slipt  into  her 
napkin  a  large  part  of  one  which  was  on  the  table,  when 
one  of  her  brothers,  a  boy  too  young  to  be  trusted  with 
the  secret,  bawled  out,  in  his  surprise  at  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  sheep's  head,  "Mamma,  look  at  Grizzy — 
while  we  were  supping  the  broth,  she  has  eaten  up  all 
the  sheep's  head." 

While  in  this  melancholy  abode,  Sir  Patrick  Hume's 
principal  amusement  was  reading  and  reciting  Buchanan's 
translation  of  the  Psalms.  After  lurking  in  his  father's 
tomb,  and  afterwards  in  his  own  Louse,  ior  three  or  fout 


RYE-HOUSE    PLOTS.  65 

weeks,  he  at  length  ventured  abroad,  and  through  many 
dangers  trade  his  escape  to  Holland,  like  other  fugitives. 

in  the  meantime,  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  though  in  a 
very  infirm  slate  of  health., was  brought  to  that  trial  from 
which  Polvvarth  and  others  had  escaped  so  marvellously. 
This  gentleman  had  been  offered  his  life,  on  condition  ol 
his  becoming  a  witness  against  Lord  Russell ;  a  proposal 
which  he  rejected  with  disdain,  saying,  those  who  uttered 
it  knew  neither  him  nor  his  country.  It  does  not  appear 
that  there  was  the  slightest  evidence  of  the  Scottish  gen- 
tleman having  any  concern  in  the  scheme  for  assassinating 
the  King,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  had  meditated 
an  insurrection,  as  the  only  mode  of  escaping  the  contin- 
ued persecution  of  the  government. 

When  Baillie  received  sentence  of  death,  he  only  re- 
plied, "  My  Lords,  the  sentence  is  sharp,  and  the  time  is 
short  ;  but  I  thank  God,  who  has  made  me  as  fit  to  die 
as  you  are  to  live."  He  suffered  death  with  the  same  firm- 
ness; and  his  lady,  with  Roman  fortitude,  had  the  cour- 
age to  be  present  at  the  execution.  It  is  worthy  of  men- 
tion, that  the  son  and  heir  of  this  gentleman  afterwards 
married  the  same  young  lady  who  so  piously  supported  her 
father,  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  while  concealed  in  the  tomb. 
No  other  person  was  executed  for  accession  to  what  was 
called  the  Jerviswood  Plot,  but  many  gentlemen  were  tried 
in  absence,  and  their  estates  being  declared  forfeited,  were 
bestowed  on  the  most  violent  tools  of  the  government. 

Upwards  of  two  thousand  individuals  were  denounced 
outlaws,  or  fugitives  from  justice.  Other  persons,  obnox- 
ious to  the  rulers,  were  exorbitantly  fined.  One  of  these 
was  Sir  William  Scott  of  Harden,  from  whose  third  son 
your  mother  is  descended.  This  gentleman,  in  his  early 
years,  had  been  an  active  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Estates,  but  was  now  upwards  of  seventy,  and  much  re- 
tired from  public  life.  But  his  nephew,  Walter,  Earl  oj 
Tarras,  was  deeply  concerned  in  the  Jerviswood  Plot ; 
more  than  one  of  Harden's  sons  were  also  implicated,  aud 
13* 


66  DEATH    OF    CHARLES    II. 

hence  he  became  obnoxious  to  the  government.  He  at- 
tended only  on  the  Indulged,  that  is,  licensed  preachers, 
and  had  kept  himself  free  of  giving  any  offence  that  could 
be  charged  against  him.  The  celebrated  Richard  Cam- 
eron  had  been  for  some  time  his  chaplain,  but  had  been 
dismissed  so  soon  as  he  declared  against  the  Indulgence, 
and  afforded  other  symptoms  of  the  violent  opinions  of  his 
sect.  But  the  Privy  Council  had  determined  that  hus- 
bands should  be  made  responsible  for  the  penalties  and 
fines  incurred  by  their  wives.  Lady  Scott  of  Harden  had 
become  liable  for  so  many  transgressions  of  this  kind, 
that  the  sum  total,  amounting  to  almost  two  thousand 
pounds,  was,  with  much  difficulty,  limited  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred pounds,  an  immense  sum  for  a  Scottish  gentleman  of 
that  period  ;  but  which  was  extorted  from  this  aged  gen- 
tleman by  imprisonment  in  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh. 

Whilst  these  affairs  were  going  on  in  Scotland,  the  Duke 
of  York  was  suddenly  recalled  to  London  by  the  King, 
whose  health  began  to  fail.  Monmouth,  his  favourite  son, 
had  been  obliged  to  retire  abroad,  in  consequence  of  the 
affair  of  the  Rye-house  plot.  It  was  said  that  the  King 
still  nourished  a  secret  wish  to  recall  his  son,  and  to  send 
the  Duke  of  York  back  to  Scotland.  But  if  he  meditated 
such  a  change  of  resolution,  which  seems  rather  impro- 
bable, fate  left  him  no  opportunity  to  execute  it. 

Charles  II.  died  of  a  stroke  of  apoplexy,  which  sum- 
moned him  from  the  midst  of  a  distracted  country,  and  a 
gaj  aad  luxurious  court,  on  the  6th  of  February,  1685. 


DUKE    OF    YORK.  07 


CHAPTER  V. 

Ji  wsions  and  Execution  of  Monmouth  and  Jlrgyle — - 
Execution  of  Rumbold,  the  principal  Conspirator  in 
the  Rye-House  Plot — Imprisonment  of  a  body  of  A"o«- 
conformists  in  Dunottar  Castle — Distinctions  between 
the  two  parties  of  Whig  and  Tory — James  IVs.  Plans 
for  the  Restoration  of  Popery. 

WHEN  the  Duke  of  York  ascended  the  throne  on  the 
death  of  his  brother  Charles,  he  assumed  the  title  of 
James  II.  of  England,  and  James  VII.  of  Scotland.  His 
eldest  daughter,  Mary,  (whom  he  had  by  his  first  wife,) 
was  married  to  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  the  Stadthold- 
er  or  President  of  the  Dutch  United  Provinces ;  a  Prince 
of  great  wisdom,  sense,  and  courage,  distinguished  by  the 
share  he  had  taken  in  opposing  the  ambition  of  France. 
He  was  now  next  heir  to  the  crown  of  England,  unless 
the  King,  his  father-in-law,  should  have  a  surviving  sou 
by  his  present  Queen,  Mary  of  Este.  It  was  natural  to 
conclude,  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  viewed  with  the  most 
intense  interest  the  various  revolutions  and  changes  of 
disposition  which  took  place  in  a  kingdom  where  he  pos- 
sessed so  deep  a  stake.  It  did  not  escape  remark,  that 
the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  and  the  va- 
rious malcontents  who  were  compelled  to  fly  from  Eng- 
land or  Scotland,  seemed  to  find  support,  as  well  as  ref- 
uge, in  Holland.  On  this  subject  James  made  several 
remonstrances  to  his  son-in-law,  which  the  Prince  evaded, 
by  alleging  that  a  free  state,  like  the  Dutch  republic,  could 
not  shut  its  ports  against  fugitives,  of  whatever  descrip- 
tion ;  and  with  such  excuses  James  was  obliged  to  remain 
satisfied.  Nevertheless,  the  enemies  of  the  monarch  were 
so  absolutely  subdued,  both  in  Scotland  and  England,  that 
no  prince  in  Europe  seemed  more  firmly  seated  upon  his 
throne* 


68  INVASION    OF    THE    OUKE    OF    MONMOUTII. 

In  the  meanwhile,  there  was  no  relaxation  in  the  op- 
pressive measures  carried  on  in  Scotland.  The  same 
laws  for  apprehending,  examining,  and  executing  in  the 
fields,  were  enforced  with  unrelenting  severity  ;  and  as 
the  refusal  to  bear  evidence  against  a  person  accused 
of  treason,  was  made  to  amount  to  a  crime  equal  to  trea- 
son itself,  the  lands  and  life  of  every  one  seemed  to  he 
exposed  to  the  machinations  of  the  corrupt  ministry  of  an 
arbitrary  Prince.  To  administer  or  receive  the  Cove- 
nant, or  even  to  write  in  its  defence,  was  declared  trea- 
sonable, and  many  other  delinquencies  were  screwed  up 
to  the  same  penalty  of  death  and  confiscation.  Those 
whom  the  law  named  traitors  were  thus  rendered  so  nu- 
merous, that  it  seemed  to  be  impossible  for  the  most  cau- 
tious to  avoid  coming  into  contact  with  them,  and  thereby 
subjecting  themselves  to  the  severe  penalties  denounced 
on  all  having  intercourse  with  such  delinquents.  This 
general  scene  of  oppression  would,  it  was  supposed,  lead 
to  a  universal  desire  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  James,  should 
an  opportunity  be  afforded. 

Under  this  conviction,  the  numerous  disaffected  persons 
who  had  retreated  to  Holland,  resolved  upon  a  double  in- 
vasion of  Britain,  one  part  of  which  was  to  be  directed 
against  England,  under  command  of  the  popular  Duke 
of  Monmouth.  whose  hopes  of  returning  in  any  more 
peaceful  fashion  had  been  destroyed  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  Charles  II.  The  other  branch  of  the  expedition 
ivas  destined  to  invade  Scotland,  having  at  its  head  the 
Earl  of  Argyie,  (who  had  been  the  victim  of  so  much 
unjust  persecution,)  with  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  Sir  John 
Cochrane,  and  others,  the  most  important  of  the  Scottish 
exiles,  to  assist  and  counsel  him. 

As  these  Tales  relate  exclusively  to  the  history  of 
Scotland,  I  need  only  notice,  that  Monmouth's  share  of 
the  undertaking  seemed,  for  a  time,  to  promise  succesf. 
Having  landed  at  Lyme  in  Dorsetshire,  he  was  joined  by 
greater  numbers  of  men  than  he  had  means  of  arming, 
and  his  rapid  progress  greatly  alarmed  James's  govern" 
ment.  But  his  adherents  were  almost  entirely  of  the 


EXECUTION  OF   MONMOUTH.  69 

lower  order,  whose  zeal  and  courage  might  be  relied  ony 
but  who  had  no  advantages  of  influence  from  education  or 
property.  At  length  the  unfortunate  Duke  hazarded  a 
battle  near  Sedgmoor,  in  which  his  cavalry,  from  the 
treachery  or  cowardice  of  their  leader,  Lord  Grey,  fled 
and  left  the  infantry  unprotected.  The  sturdy  peasants 
fought  with  the  utmost  resolution,  until  they  were  totally 
broken  and  dispersed  with  great  slaughter.  But  the  car- 
nage made  among  the  unresisting  fugitives  was  forgotten, 
in  comparison  with  the  savage  arid  unsparing  judicial 
prosecutions  which  were  afterwards  carried  on  before 
Judge  Jefferies,  a  man  whose  cruelty  was  a  shame  to  his 
profession,  and  to  mankind. 

Monmouth  himself  had  no  better  fortune  than  his  un- 
fortunate adherents.  He  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  pur- 
suers, and  was  brought  prisoner  to  the  Tower  of  London. 
He  entreated  to  be  permitted  to  have  an  interview  with 
the  King,  alleging  he  had  something  of  consequence  to 
discover  to  him.  But  when  this  was  at  length  granted, 
the  unhappy  Duke  had  nothing  to  tell,  or  at  least  told 
nothing,  but  exhausted  himself  in  asking  mercy  at  the 
hands  of  his  uncle,  who  had  previously  determined  not  to 
grant  it.  Monmouth  accordingly  suffered  death  on  Tow- 
erhill,  amid  the  lamentations  of  the  common  people, 'to 
whom  he  was  endeared  by  his  various  amiable  qualities, 
and  the  beauty  of  his  person,  which  qualified  him  to  be 
the  delight  and  ornament  of  a  court,  but  not  to  be  the 
liberator  of  an  oppressed  people". 

While  the  brief  tragedy  of  Monmouth's  invasion,  de- 
feat, and  death,  was  passing  in  England,  Argyle's  invasion 
of  Scotland  was  brought  to  as  unhappy  a  conclusion. 
The  leaders,  even  before  they  left  their  ships,  differed  as 
to  the  course  to  be  pursued.  Argyle,  a  great  chieftain  in 
the  Highlands,  was  naturally  disposed  to  make  the  prin- 
cipal efforts  in  that  country  which  his  friends  and  followers 
inhabited.  Sir  Patrick  Hume  and  Sir  John  Cochrane, 
while  they  admitted  that  they  were  certain  to  raise  the 
r.lan  of  Campbell  by  following  the  Earl's  counsel,  contend- 
ed nevertheless,  that  this  single  clan,  however  brave  and 


70  INVASION    OF    ARUYLE. 

lumerous,  could  not  contend  with  the  united  strength  of 
all  the  other  western  tribes,  who  were  hostile  to  Argyle, 
and  personally  attached  to  James  II.  They  complained, 
that  by  landing  in  the  West  Highlands,  they  should  expose 
themselves  to  be  shut  up  in  a  corner  of  the  kingdom,  where 
they  could  expect  to  be  joined  by  none  save  Argyle's 
immediate  dependants  ;  and  where  they  must  necessarily 
he  separated  from  tbe  western  provinces,  in  which  the 
oppressed  Covenanters  had  shown  themselves  ready  to 
rise,  even  without  the  encouragement  of  money  or  arms, 
or  of  a  number  of  brave  gentlemen  to  command  and  lead 
them  on. 

These  disputes  augmented,  when,  on  landing  in  Kin- 
tyre,  the  Earl  of  Argyle  raised  his  clan  to  the  number  01 
about  a  thousand  men.  Joined  to  the  adventurers  who 
had  embarked  from  Holland,  who  were  about  three  hun- 
dred, and  to  other  recruits,  the  insurgent  army  might 
amount  in  all  to  fifteen  hundred  men,  a  sufficient  number 
to  have  struck  a  severe  blow  before  the  royal  forces  could 
have  assembled  together,  if  the  invaders  could  have  de- 
termined among  themselves  where  to  aim  it. 

Argyle  proposed  marching  to  Inverary,  to  attack  the 
Laird  of  Ballechan,  who  was  lying  there  for  the  King 
with  six  hundred  Highlanders,  waiting  the  support  of  the 
Marquis  of  Athole,  who  was  at  the  head  of  several  clans 
in  motion  towards  Argyleshire.  But  Sir  John  Cochrane. 
having  had  some  communications  in  the  west,  which  prom- 
ised a  general  rising  in  that  country,  declared  that  the 
main  effort  should  be  made  in  that  quarter.  He  had  a 
letter  also  from  a  gentleman  of  Lanarkshire,  named  Wil- 
liam Cleland,  undertaking,  that  if  the  Marquis  of  Argyle 
would  declare  for  the  work  of  Reformation,  carried  on 
from  the  year  1638  to  1648,  he  should  be  joined  by  all 
the  faithful  Presbyterians  in  that  country.  Sir  John 
therefore  demanded  from  Argyle  a  supply  of  men  and 
ammunition,  that  he  might  raise  the  western  shires  ;  and 
tvas  so  eager  in  the  request,  that  he  said  if  nobody  would 
support  him,  he  would  go  alone  with  a  corn- fork  h  hia 
hand. 


INVASION    OF   ARGYLE.  71 

Either  project  was  hopeful,  if  either  had  been  rapidly 
executed,  but  the  loss  of  time  in  debating  the  question 
was  fatal.  At  length  the  Lowland  expedition  was  deter- 
mined on  ;  and  Argyle,  with  an  army  augmented  to  two 
thousand  five  hundred  men,  descended  into  Lennox,  pro- 
posing to  cross  the  Clyde,  and  raise  the  Covenanters  o/ 
the  west  country.  But  the  various  parties  among  the 
Presbyterians  had  already  fallen  into  debates,  whether  or 
not  they  should  own  Argyle,  and  unite  under  his  stand- 
ard ;  so  that,  when  that  unhappy,  and,  it  would  seem, 
irresolute  nobleman,  had  crossed  the  river  Leven,  near  to 
Dumbarton,  he  found  his  little  army,  without  any  prospect 
of  reinforcement,  nearly  surrounded  by  superior  forces  of 
the  King,  assembling  from  different  points,  under  the 
Marquis  of  Athole,  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  and  the  Earl  of 
Dumbarton. 

Argyle,  pressed  on  all  sides,  proposed  to  give  battle  to 
the  enemy  ;  but  the  majority  of  the  council  of  war  which 
he  convoked  were  of  opinion,  that  it  was  more  advisable  to 
give  the  enemy  the  slip,  and,  leaving  the  encampment  in 
the  night,  to  march  for  Glasgow,  or  for  Bothwell  Bridge  ; 
and  thus  at  the  same  time  get  into  the  country  of  friends, 
and  place  a  large  and  unfordable  river  betwixt  them  and 
a  superior  enemy.  Lighting,  therefore,  numerous  fires 
in  the  camp,  as  if  it  were  still  occupied  by  them,  Argyle 
and  his  troops  commenced  their  projected  manoeuvre  ; 
but  a  retreat  is  always  a  discouraging  movement,  a  night- 
march  commonly  a  confused  one,  and  the  want  of  disci- 
pline in  these  hasty  levies  added  to  the  general  want  of 
confidence  and  the  general  disorder.  Their  guides,  also, 
were  either  treacherous  or  ignorant,  for,  when  morning 
dawned  on  the  dispirited  insurgents,  instead  of  finding 
themselves  near  Glasgow,  they  perceived  they  were  much 
lower  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde,  near  Kilpatrick.  Here 
the  leaders  came  to  an  open  rupture.  Their  army  broke 
up  and  separated ;  and  when  the  unfortunate  Earl,  being 
left  almost  alone,  endeavoured  to  take  refuge  in  the  house 
of  a  person  who  had  been  once  his  servant,  he  was  posi- 
tively refused  admittance.  He  then  crossed  the  Clyde 


ll>  EXECUTION    OF    AUGYLh. 

accompanied  by  a  single  friend,  who,  perceiving  that  ihey 
were  pursued,  had  the  generosity  to  halt  and  draw  upon 
himself  the  attention  of  the  party  who  followed  them. 
This  was  at  Inchinnan  ford,  upon  the  river  Cart,  close  to 
Blythswood  House. 

But  Argyle  was  not  more  safe  alone  than  in  company, 
It  was  observed  by  some  soldiers  of  the  militia,  who  were 
out  in  every  direction,  that  the  fugitive  quitted  his  horse 
and  waded  through  the  river  on  foot,  from  which  they 
argued  he  must  be  a  person  of  importance,  who  was  care- 
less about  losing  his  horse,  so  that  he  himself  made  his 
escape.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  reached  the  bank,  they 
fell  upon  him,  and  though  he  made  some  defence,  at  length 
struck  him  down.  As  he  fell  he  exclaimed, — "  Unfor- 
tunate Argyle  !"  thus  apprising  his  captors  of  the  import 
ance  of  their  prisoner.  A  large  fragment  of  rock,  still 
called  Argyle's  Stone,  marks  the  place  where  he  was 
taken. 

Thus  terminated  this  unfortunate  expedition,  in  which 
Argyle  seems  to  have  engaged,  from  an  over  estimation 
both  of  his  own  consequence  and  military  talents,  and  the 
Lowland  gentlemen  to  have  joined,  from  their  imperfect 
knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  country,  reported  to  them 
by  such  as  deeply  felt  their  own  wrongs,  and  did  not  con- 
sider that  the  mass  of  their  countrymen  was  overawed,  as 
well  as  discontented. 

By  way  of  retaliating  upon  this  unhappy  nobleman  the 
severities  exercised  towards  Montrose,  which  he  is  said 
to  have  looked  upon  in  triumph,  the  same  disgraceful  in- 
dignities were  used  towards  Argyle,  to  which  his  enemy 
had  been  subjected.  He  was  carried  up  the  High-Street 
bare-headed,  and  mounted  on  an  unsaddled  horse,  with 
the  hangman  preceding  him,  and  was  thus  escorted  to  the 
Tolbooth. 

The  Council  debated  whether  he  should  be  executed 
on  the  extravagant  sentence  which  had  condemned  him 
for  a  traitor  and  depraver  of  the  laws,  on  account  of  his 
adding  a  qualification  to  the  test,  or  whether  it  were  not 
better  to  try  him  anew,  for  the  undoubted  treason  which 


EXECUTION    OF    KUMHOI.ll.  7o 

he  had  commuted  by  this  subsequent  act  of  invasion  It 
was  resolved  tney  should  follow  the  first  course,  and  hold 
Argyle  as  a  man  already  condemned,  lest,  by  doing  other- 
wise, they  should  seem  to  admit  the  illegality  of  the  first 
sentence.  The  unfortunate  Earl  was  appointed  to  be 
beheaded  by  the  Maiden,  an  instrument  resembling  the 
Guillotine  of  modern  France.  He  mounted  the  scalFold 
with  great  firmness,  and  embracing  the  engine  by  which 
he  was  to  suffer,  declared  it  the  sweetest  maiden  he  ever 
kissed,  and  submitted  with  courage  to  the  fatal  accom- 
plishment of  his  sentence.  When  this  noblemaVs  death 
is  considered  as  the  consequence  of  a  sentence  passed 
against  him  for  presuming  to  comment  upon  and  explain 
an  oath  which  was  self-contradictory,  it  can  only  be  termed 
a  judicial  murder.  Upwards  of  twenty  of  the  most  con- 
siderable gentlemen  of  his  clan  were  executed  in  conse- 
quence of  having  joined  him.  His  estate  was  wasted  and 
confiscated  ;  his  brother,  Lord  Niel  Campbell,  was  forced 
to  fly  to  America,  and  his  name  doomed  to  extirpation. 

Several  of  Argyle's  Lowlarid  followers  were  also  con- 
demned to  death.  Amongst  these  was  Richard  Rumbold, 
an  Englishman,  the  principal  conspirator  in  what  was 
called  the  Rye-house  Plot.  He  was  a  republican  of  the 
old  stamp,  who  might  have  ridden  right-hand  man  to  Crom- 
well himsetf.  He  was  the  most  active  in  the  scheme  for 
assassinating  the  two  royal  brothers,  which  was  to  have 
been  executed  at  his  farm  called  the  Rye-house,  by  one 
party  firing  on  the  guards,  and  another  pouring  their  shot 
into  the  King's  carriage.  Rumbold,  who  was  to  head  the 
latter  party,  expressed  some  scruple  at  shooting  the  inno- 
cent postilion,  but  had  no  compunction  on  the  project  oi 
assassinating  the  King  and  the  Duke  of  York. 

Escaping  from  England  when  the  discovery  took  place, 
this  stern  republican  had  found  refuge  in  Holland,  until  he 
was  persuaded  to  take  part  in  Argyle's  expedition.  When 
the  Scottish  leaders  broke  up  in  confusion  and  deserted 
each  other,  a  stranger  and  an  Englishman  was  not  likely 
to 'experience  much  aid  or  attention.  Rumbold,  left  lo 

899 


"4  IMPRISONMENT    OF 

shift  fur  himself  amid  the  general  dispersion  and  flight, 
was  soon  beset  by  a  party  of  the  Royalists,  and  whilst  he 
stoutly  defended  himself  against  two  men  in  front,  a  third 
came  behind  him  with  a  corn-fork,  put  it  behind  his  ear, 
and  turned  off  his  steel  cap,  leaving  his  head  exposed  ; 
on  which  Rumbold  exclaimed,  "  O  cruel  countryman,  to 
use  me  thus  when  rny  face  was  to  mine  enemy  !" 

He  died  the  death  of  a  traitor,  as  his  share  in  the  Rye- 
house  conspiracy  justly  merited.  But  on  the  scaffold, 
Rumbold  maintained  the  same  undaunted  courage  he  had 
often  shcrtvn  in  the  field.  One  of  his  dying  observations 
was,  "  that  he  had  never  believed  the  generality  of  man- 
kind came  into  the  world  bridled  and  saddled,  and  a  few 
booted  and  spurred  to  ride  upon  them." 

This  man's  death  was  afterwards  avenged  on  one  Mark 
Kerr,  the  chief  of  those  who  took  him,  who  was  murder- 
ed before  lite  own  door,  by  two  young  men  calling  them- 
selves Rumbold's  sons,  who  ripped  out  his  heart,  in 
imitation  of  what  their  father  had  suffered  on  the  scaffold. 
Thus  does  crime  beget  crime,  and  cruelty  engender  cru- 
elty. The  actors  in  this  bloody  deed  made  their  escape, 
not  so  much  as  a  dog  baying  at  them. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Argyle's  rebellion,  I  may 
mention  a  species  of  oppression  practised  on  the  noncon- 
formists, of  a  nature  different  from  those  I  have  already 
mentioned.  When  the  alarm  of  invasion  arose,  it  was 
resolved  by  the  Privy  Council,  that  all  such  persons  as 
were  in  prison  on  account  of  religion  should  be  sent  to  the 
north,  for  their  more  safe  custody.  After  a  toilsome 
march,  rendered  bitter  by  want  of  food  and  accommoda- 
tion, as  well  as  by  the  raillery  of  the  pipers,  who  insulted 
with  ridiculous  tunes  a  set  of  persons  who  held  their  min- 
strelsy to  be  sinful,  the  Wanderers,  to  the  number  of  a 
hundred  and  sixty  persons,  of  whom  there  were  several 
women,  and  even  some  children,  reached  the  place  of  their 
destination.  This  proved  to  be  the  Castle  of  Dunottar, 
a  strong  fortrejs,  almost  surrounded  by  the  German  Ocean, 
the  same  in  which,  as  1  have  told  you,  the  Regalia  -of 
Scotland  were  preserved  for  some  time.  Here  they  were 


THE    NONCONFORMISTS.  75 

without  distinction  packed  into  a  large  dungeon,  having  a 
window  open  to  the  sea,  but  in  front  a  huge  precipice 
They  were  neither  allowed  bedding  nor  provisions,  ex- 
cepting what  they  bought,  and  were  treated  with  the  ut- 
most rigour.  The  walls  of  this  place,  still  called  the 
Whigs'  Vault,  bear  token  to  the  severities  inflicted  on  those 
unhappy  persons.  There  are,  in  particular,  a  number  oi 
apertures  cut  in  the  wall  about  a  man's  height,  and  it  was 
the  custom,  when  such  was  the  jailor's  pleasure,  that  any 
prisoner  who  was  accounted  refractory,  should  be  obliged 
lo  stand  up  with  his  arms  extended,  and  his  fingers  secured 
by  wedges  in  the  crevices  I  have  described.  It  appears 
that  some  of  these  apertures  or  crevices,  which  are  lower 
than  the  others,  have  been  intended  for  women,  and  even 
for'  children.  In  this  cruel  confinement  many  died,  some 
were  deprived  of  the  use  of  their  limbs  by  rheumatism 
and  other  diseases,  and  several  lost  their  lives  by  desperate 
attempts  to  descend  from  the  precipice  on  which  the  castle 
is  founded.  Some  who  actually  escaped  by  descending 
the  rocks,  were  retaken,  and  for  the  attempt  so  cruelly 
tortured,  by  lighted  matches  tied  between  their  fingers, 
that  several  were  mutilated,  and  others  died  of  the  inflam- 
mation which  ensued. 

The  survivors,  after  enduring  this  horrid  imprisonment 
for  six  weeks  or  two  months,  had  the  test  offered  to  them 
Those  who,  overcome  by  bodily  anguish,  and  the  hope- 
less misery  of  their  condition,  agreed  to  take  this  engage- 
ment, were  discharged,  and  the  others  transported  to  the 
plantations.  A  tombstone  in  Dunottar  churchyard,  still 
preserves  the  names  of  those  who  died  in  this  cruel  cap- 
tivity, in  the  various  modes  we  have  mentioned. 

The  failure  of  the  invasions  of  Monmouth  and  Argyle, 
with  the  revenge  which  had  been  taken  on  their  unfortu- 
nate leaders,  was  by  James,  in  his  triumph,  recorded  by 
two  medals  struck  for  the  occasion,  which  bore  on  one 
side  two  severed  heads,  on  the  other  two  headless  trunks, 
a  device  as  inhuman  as  the  proceedings  by  which  these 
advantages  had  been  followed  up,  and  the  royal  vengeance 
unsparingly  executed. 


76  THE    TWO    PARTIES    OF 

The  part  of  Me  nation  which  inclined  to  support  the 
side  of  the  King  n  all  political  discussions,  now  obtained 
B  complete  supeiiority  over  the  rest.  They  were  known 
by  the  name  of  Tories,  an  appellation  borrowed  from  Ire- 
land, where  the  irregular  and  desultory  bands,  which 
maintained  a  sort  of  skirmishing  warfare  after  Cromwell 
had  suppressed  every  national  and  united  effort,  were  so 
called.  Like  the  opposite  term  of  Whig,  Tory  was  at 
first  used  as  an  epithet  of  scorn  and  ridicule,  and  both 
were  at  length  adopted  as  party  distinctions,  coming  in 
place  of  those  which  had  been  used  during  the  Civil  War  ; 
the  word  Tory  superseding  the  term  of  Cavalier,  and  Whig 
being  applied  instead  of  Roundhead.  The  same  terms 
of  distinction  have  descended  to  our  time,  as  expressing 
the  outlines  of  the  two  political  parties  who  divide  the 
Houses  of  Parliament,  and,  viewed  politically,  the  whole 
mass  of  the  community.  A  man  who  considers  that,  in 
the  general  view  of  the  constitution,  the  monarchical  power 
is  in  danger  of  being  undermined  by  the  popular  branches, 
and  who  therefore  supports  the  Crown  in  ordinary  cases 
of  dispute,  is  a  Tory  ;  while  one  who  conceives  the  power 
of  the  Crown  to  be  more  likely  to  encroach  upon  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  throws  his  weight  and  influence 
into  the  popular  scale,  and  is  called  a  Whig. 

Either  of  these  opinions  may  be  honourably  and  con- 
scientiously maintained  by  the  party  whom  reflection  or 
education  has  led  to  adopt  it  ;  and  the  existence  of  two 
such  parties,  opposing  each  other  with  reason  and  mod- 
eration, and  by  constitutional  means  only,  is  the  sure  mode 
of  preventing  aggression,  either  on  the  rights  of  the  Crown 
or  on  the  privileges  of  the  people,  and  of  keeping  the 
constitution  itself  inviolate  ;  as  the  stays  and  rigging  of  a 
vessel  straining  against  each  other  in  opposite  directions, 
tend  to  keep  the  ship's  mast  upright  in  its  place.  But  as 
it  is  natural  for  men  to  drive  favourite  opinions  into  ex- 
tremes, it  has  frequently  happened,  that  the  Whigs,  or  the 
more  violent  part  of  that  faction,  have  entertained  opin- 
ions which  tended  towards  democracy  ;  and  that  the 
Tories,  on  the  other  hand,  indulging  in  opposite  prejudices, 


WHIG    AND    TORY.  "3  7 

have  endangered  the  constitution  by  their  tendency  to- 
wards absolute  rule. 

Thus,  in  the  great  Civil  War,  the  Inends  to  popular 
freedom  began  their  opposition  to  Charles  I.,  in  the  laud- 
able desire  to  regain  the  full  extent  of  constitutional  lib- 
erty, but  could  not  bring  the  war  to  a  conclusion  until  the 
monarchy  was  totally  overthrown,  and  liberty  overwhelm- 
ed in  the  ruins.  In  like  manner,  the  Tories  of  Charles 
II.  and  James  Il's.  time,  remembering  the  fatal  issue  of 
the  civil  wars,  adopted  the  opposite  and  equally  mistaken 
opinion,  that  no  check  could  be  opposed  to  the  will  of  the 
sovereign,  without  danger  of  overthrowing  the  throne,  and 
by  their  unlimited  desire  to  enlarge  the  prerogative  of  the 
Crown,  they  not  only  endangered  the  national  liberty,  but 
conducted  the  deluded  sovereign  to  his  ruin.  When, 
therefore,  we  speak  of  any  particular  measure  adopted 
oy  the  Whigs  or  Tories,  it  would  be  very  rash  to  consider 
it  as  deserving  of  censure  or  applause,  merely  on  account 
of  its  having  originated  with  the  one  or  the  other  of  these 
parties.  On  the  contrary,  its  real  merits  can  only  be 
soundly  estimated  when  we  have  attentively  considered 
its  purpose  and  effect,  compared  With  the  general  spirit  of 
the  constitution,  and  with  the  exigencies  of  the  times  when 
it  was  brought  forward. 

During  the  whole  of  Charles  the  Second's  reign,  a 
violent  struggle  had  been  continued  between  the  Whigs 
and  the  Tories,  in  the  course  of  which  both  parties  acted 
with  a  furious  animosity,  which  admitted  of  no  scruple 
concerning  the  means  to  be  resorted  to  for  annoying  their 
adversaries.  The  Whig  party  had  availed  themselves  of 
that  detestable  imposture  called  the  Popish  Plot,  to  throw 
upon  the  Tories  the  guilt  of  an  attempt  to  massacre  the 
Protestants,  and  bring  England  back  to  the  Catholic  faith 
oy  the  sword.  Under  this  pretext  they  shed  no  sin  ah 
quantity  of  innocent  blood.  The  Tories  regained  a  de- 
cided ascendency,  by  the  discovery  of  the  Rye-house 
Plot,  an  atrocious  enterprise,  at  which  men's  minds  revolt- 
ed, and  which  the  court  artfully  improved,  by  confounding 


78  PLANS    OF    JAMES    II.    FOR 

the  more  moderate  schemes  laid  by  Mon mouth,  Lora 
Russell,  and  others,  for  obtaining  some  relief  from  tlie 
oppressive  and  unconstitutional  measures  of  the  court,  with 
the  bloody  measures  against  the  King's  person,  which 
Rumbold  and  other  desperate  men  had  meditated.  The 
general  hatred  inspired  by  the  latter  enterprise,  excited  a 
wide-spread  clamour  against  the  conspirators,  and  the 
Tories  in  their  turn  became  the  instruments  of  sacrificing, 
on  account  of  a  conspiracy  of  which  they  were  ignorant. 
Lord  Russell  and  Algernon  Sidney,  two  men  whose  names, 
for  free  and  courageous  sentiments,  will  live  for  ever  in 
history. 

The  prejudice  against  the  Whigs  had  not  subsided, 
when  James  ascended  the  throne,  and  the  terrible  mode 
in  which  the  invasion  of  Monmouth  was  suppressed  and 
punished,  if  it  excited  compassion  for  the  sufferers,  spread, 
at  the  same  time,  general  dread  of  the  government.  In 
these  circumstances,  the  whole  powers  of  the  state  seemed 
about  to  be  surrendered  to  the  King,  without  even  a  re- 
collection of  the  value  of  national  liberty,  or  of  the  blood 
which  had  been  spent  in  its  defence.  The  danger  was 
the  greater,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  national  clergy 
were  extravagant  Royalists,  who  had  adopted  maxims 
utterly  inconsistent  with  freedom,  and  with  the  very  es- 
sence of  the  British  constitution.  They  contended  that 
the  right  of  kings  flowed  from  God,  and  that  they  were 
responsible  to  Him  only  for  the  manner  in  which  they  ex- 
ercised it;  that  no  misconduct  however  gross,  no  oppres- 
sion however  unjust,  gave  the  subject  any  right  to  defend 
his  person  or  his  property  against  the  violence  of  the 
sovereign,  and  that  any  attempt  at  resistance,  however 
provoked,  was  contrary  alike  to  religion  and  to  law,  and 
was  liable  to  punishment  in  this  world  as  treason  or  sedi- 
tion, and  in  that  which  is  to  come  to  eternal  condemnation, 
\s  foes  of  the  prince  whom  Heaven  had  made  their  anoint- 
ed sovereign.  Such  were  the  base  and  slavish  maxims 
into  which  many  wise,  good,  and  learned  men  were  hur- 
ried, from  the  recollection  of  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  the 
death  of  Charles  I.,  and  the  destruction  of  the  Hierarchy  j 


THE  RESTORATION  OF  POPERY.         79 

and  thus  do  men  endeavour  to  avoid  the  repetition  of  one 
class  of  crimes  and  errors,  by  rushing  into  extremes  of  a 
different  description. 

James  II.  was  unquestionably  desirous  of  power  ;  yet 
such  was  the  readiness  with  which  courts  of  justice  placed 
at  his  feet  the  persons  and  property  of  his  subjects,  and 
so  great  the  zeal  with  which  many  of  the  clergy  were  dis- 
posed to  exalt  his  authority  into  something  of  a  sacred 
character,  accountable  for  his  actions  to  Heaven  alone, 
that  it  must  have  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  form  any 
demand  for  an  extension  of  authority  which  would  not 
have  been  readily  conceded  to  him,  on  the  slightest  hint 
of  his  pleasure.  But  it  was  the  misfortune  of  this  mon- 
arch to  conceive,  that  the  same  sophistry  by  which  divines 
and  lawyers  placed  the  property  and  personal  freedom  of 
his  subjects  at  his  unlimited  disposal,  extended  his  power 
over  the  freedom  of  their  consciences  also. 

We  have  often  repeated,  that  James  was  himself  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  ;  and,  as  a  sincere  professor  of  that  faith, 
he  was  not  only  disposed,  but  bound,  as  far  as  possible, 
to  bring  others  into  the  pale  of  the  church,  beyond  which, 
according  to  the  Popish  belief,  there  is  no  salvation.  He 
might  also  flatter  himself,  that  the  indulgences  of  a  life 
which  had  been  in  some  respects  irregular,  might  be  ob- 
literated and  atoned  for  by  the  great  and  important  service 
of  ending  the  Northern  heresy.  To  James's  sanguine 
hopes,  there  appeared  at  this  time  a  greater  chance  of  so 
important  a  change  being  accomplished  than  at  any  former 
period.  His  own  power,  if  he  was  to  trust  the  expres- 
sions of  the  predominant  party  in  the  state,  was  at  least 
as  extensive  over  the  bodies  and  minds  of  his  subjects  as 
that  of  the  Tudor  family,  under  whose  dynasty  the  religion 
of  England  four  times  changed  its  form,  at  the  will  and 
pleasure  of  the  sovereign.  James  might,  therefore,  flatter 
himself,  that  as  Henry  VIII.  by  his  sole  fiat  detached  Eng- 
land from  the  Pope,  and  assumed  in  his  own  person  the 
office  of  Head  of  the  Church,  so  a  submissive  clergy,  and 
a  willing  people,  might,  at  a  similar  expression  of  the 
present  sovereign's  will  and  pleasure,  return  again  unclei 


80        PLANS  FOR  RESTORING  FOPERV. 

the  dominion  of  the  Holy  Father,  when  they  behdd  theii 
prince  surrender  to  him,  as  a  usurpation,  the  right  of  su 
premacy  which  his  predecessors  had  sei/.ed  upon. 

But  there  was  a  fallacy  in  this  reasoning.  The  Refor- 
mation presented  to  the  English  nation  advantages  both 
spiritual  and  temporal,  of  which  they  must  necessarily  be 
deprived,  by  a  reconciliation  with  Rome.  The  former 
revolution  was  a  calling  from  darkness  into  light,  from  ig- 
norance into  knowledge,  from  the  bondage  of  priestcraft 
into  freedom  ;  and  a  mandate  of  Henry  VIII.,  recom- 
mending a  change  fraught  with  such  advantages,  was  sure 
to  be  promptly  obeyed.  The  purpose  of  James,  on  the 
contrary,  went  to  restore  the  ignorance  of  the  dark  ages, 
to  lock  up  the  Scriptures  from  the  use  of  laymen,  to  bring 
back  observances  and  articles  of  faith  which  vn  re  the 
offspring  of  superstitious  credulity,  and  which  the  increas- 
ing knowledge  of  more  than  a  century  had  taught  men  to 
despise. 

Neither  would  a  reconciliation  with  Rome  have  been 
more  favourable  to  those,  who  looked  to  a  change  of  reli- 
gion only  as  the  means  of  obtaining  temporal  advantages. 
The  acquiescence  of  the  nobility  in  the  Reformation  had 
been  easily  purchased  by  the  spoils  of  the  church-property ; 
but  their  descendants,  the  present  possessors,  would  have 
every  reason  to  apprehend,  that  a  return  to  the  Catholic 
religion  might  be  cemented  by  a  resumption  of  the  church 
lands,  which  had  been  confiscated  at  the  Reformation. 

Thus  the  alteration  which  James  proposed  to  accom- 
plish in  the  national  religion,  was  a  task  as  different  from 
that  effected  by  Henry  VIII.,  as  is  that  of  pushing  a  stone 
up  hill,  from  assisting  its  natural  impulse  by  rolling  it  riown- 
vvnrds.  Similar  strength  may  indeed  be  applied  in  both 
cases,  but  the  result  of  the  two  attempts  must  be  materi- 
ally different.  This  distinction  James  did  not  perceive  ; 
and  he  persevered  in  his  rash  attempt,  in  an  evil  hour  for 
his  own  power,  but  a  foriunate  one  for  the  freedom  of  his 
subjects,  who  being  called  on  to  struggle  for  their  religion, 
>'e-asserted  their  half-surrendered  liberty,  as  the  only  mode 
by  which  they  could  obtain  effectual  means  of  resistance 


4TTEMPTS    TO    ANNUL    THE    TK8T    ACT.  81 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Attempts  of  James  II.  to  annul  the  Test  Act  and  Penal 
Statutes  against  Roman  Catholics — Proclamation  an- 
nulling the  Oath  of  Supremacy  and  Test — continued 
Efforts  to  introduce  the  Catholic  Ascendency — At- 
tempted Invasion  of  the  Rights  of  the  Universities — 
Prosecution  of  the  Bishops — Views  of  the  Prince  oj 
Orange — how  modified  by  the  Birth  of  the  Prince  oj 
Wales — Invasion  of  the  Prince  of  Orange — Flight 
of  James — The  throne  of  England  settled  upon  Wil- 
liam and  Mary. 

IN  attempting  the  rash  plan,  which  doubtless  had  for 
its  object  the  establishment  of  the  Catholic  religion  in  his 
dominions,  James  II.,  in  his  speech  to  the  first  English 
Parliament  after  Monmouth's  defeat,  acquainted  them  with 
his  intentions  in  two  particulars,  both  highly  alarming  in 
the  existing  temper  of  the  public.  The  first  was,  that 
having  seen,  he  said,  from  the  example  of  the  last  rebel- 
lion, that  the  militia  were  not  adequate  to  maintain  the 
defence  of  the  kingdom,  it  was  the  King's  purpose  in  fu- 
ture to  maintain  a  body  of  regular  troops,  for  whose  pay 
he  requested  the  House  of  Commons  would  make  pro- 
vision. The  second  point  was  no  less  ominous.  The 
King  desired,  that  no  man  would  take  exceptions  if  he 
employed  some  officers  in  the  army  who  were  not  qualified 
according  to  the  Test  Act.  "  They  were  persons,"  he 
said,  "  well  known  to  him  ;  and  having  had  the  benefit  of 
their  assistance  in  a  time  of  need  and  danger,  he  was  de- 
termined neither  to  expose  them  to  disgrace,  nor  himself 
to  the  want  of  their  services  on  a  future  occasion." 

To  understand  what  ihis  alluded  to  vou  must  be  in- 
formed that  the  Test  Act  was  contrived  to  exclude  all 
persons  from  offices  of  public  trust,  commissions  in  the 
14  2dSER. 


32  ATTEMPT    OF    JAMES    II.    TO 

army,  and  the  like,  who  should  not  previously  take  the 
test  oath,  declaring  themselves  Protestants,  according  to 
the  Church  of  England.  King  James's  speech  from  the 
throne,  therefore,  intimated  that  he  intended  to  maintain 
a  standing  military  force,  and  that  it  was  his  purpose  to 
officer  these  in  a  great  measure  with  Papists,  whom  he 
designed  thus  to  employ,  although  they  could  not  take  the 
test. 

Both  these  suspicious  and  exceptionable  measures  being 
so  bluntly  announced,  created  great  alarm.  When  it  was 
moved  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  thanks  be  returned  for 
the  King's  speech,  Lord  Halifax  said,  that  thanks  were 
indeed  due  to  His  Majesty,  but  it  was  because  he  had 
frankly  let  them  see  the  point  he  aimed  at.  In  the  House 
of  Commons,  the  reception  of  the  speech  was  more  mark- 
edly unfavourable  ;  and  an  address  was  voted,  represent- 
ing that  the  Papist  officers  lay  under  disabilities,  which 
could  only  be  removed  by  act  of  Parliament. 

This  intimation  was  ill-received  by  the  King  in  his  turn, 
who  expressed  himselt  displeased  at  the  implied  jealousy 
of  his  purposes.  The  House  remained  in  profound  silence 
lor  some  time,  until  Mr.  Cook  stood  up  and  said,  "  I  hope 
we  are  all  Englishmen,  and  not  to  be  frightened  out  of  our 
duty  by  a  few  hard  words."  This  was  considered  as 
censurable  language,  and  the  gentleman  who  used  it  was 
sent  to  the  Tower.  The  King  presently  afterwards  pro- 
rogued the  Parliament,  which  never  met  again  during  the 
short  remainder  of  his  reign. 

Highly  exasperated  and  disappointed  at  the  unexpected 
and  unfavourable  reception  which  his  propositions  in  fa- 
vour of  the  Roman  Catholics  had  received  from  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  James  determined  that  the  legislature  of 
Scotland,  which  till  now  had  studied  to  fulfil,  and  even 
anticipate  his  slightest  wishes,  should  show  their  southern 
neighbours,  in  this  instance  also,  the  example  of  submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  their  sovereign.  In  order  to  induce 
them,  and  particularly  the  representatives  of  the  burghs, 
to  consent  without  hesitation,  he  promised  a  free  inter- 
course of  trade  with  England,  and  an  ample  indemnity 


ANNUL    THE    TEST    ACT.  83 

for  al.  past  offences  ;  measures  which  he  justly  regarded 
as  essential  to  the  welfare  of  Scotland.  But  these  most 
desirable  favours  were  clogged  by  a  request,  that  the  penal 
laws  should  be  abolished,  and  the  test  withdrawn.  The 
Scottish  Parliament,  hitherto  so  submissive,  were  alarmed 
at  this  proposal,  which,  although  it  commenced  only  by 
putting  Popery  on  a  level  with  the  established  religion, 
was  likely,  they  thought,  to  end  in  overturning  the  Re- 
formed doctrines,  and  replacing  those  of  the  Church  of 
Rome. 

It  is  true  that  the  Scottish  penal  laws  respecting  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  of  the  most  severe  and  harsh  char- 
acter. The  punishments  for  assisting  at  the  celebration 
of  the  mass,  were,  for  the  first  offence,  confiscation  and 
corporal  punishment  ;  for  the  second,  banishment  ;  and 
to  the  third  the  pains  of  treason  were  annexed.  These 
tyrannical  laws  had  been  introduced  at  a  violent  period, 
when  those  who  had  just  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  Popery 
were  desirous  to  prevent,  by  every  means,  the  slightest 
chance  of  its  being  again  imposed  on  them  j  and  when, 
being  irritated  by  the  recollection  of  the  severities  inflict- 
ed by  the  Roman  Catholics  on  those  whom  they  termed 
heretics,  the  Protestants  were  naturally  disposed  to  retal- 
iate upon  the  sect  by  whom  they  had  been  practised. 

But  although  little  could  be  said  in  defence  of  these 
laws,  when  the  Catholics  were  reduced  to  a  submissive 
state,  the  greater  part  by  far  of  the  people  of  Scotland 
desired  that  they  should  continue  to  exist,  as  a  defence  to 
the  Reformed  religion,  in  case  the  Papists  should  again 
attempt  to  recover  their  ascendency.  They  urged,  that, 
while  the  Catholics  remained  quiet,  there  had  been  no 
recent  instance  of  the  penal  laws  being  executed  against 
them,  and  that  therefore,  since  they  were  already  in  actual 
enjoyment  of  absolute  freedom  of  conscience,  the  only 
purpose  of  the  proposed  abolition  of  hie  penal  laws  must 
be,  to  bring  the  Catholics  forward  into  public  situations, 
as  the  favoured  ministers  of  the  King,  and  professing  the 
same  religion  with  his  Majesty. 


S4  ATTEMPT    OF    JAMBS    II.    TO 

Then,  in  respect  to  the  test  oath,  men  remembered  that 
it  had  been  the  contrivance  of  Jarncs  hin.^elf ;  deemed 
so  sacred,  that  Argyle  had  been  condemned  to  death  for 
even  slightly  qualifying  it  ;  and  declared  so  necessary  to 
the  safety,  nay,  existence  of  the  Episcopal  Church  of 
Scotland,  that  it  was  forced  upon  Presbyterians  at  the 
sword's  point.  The  Protestants,  therefore,  of  every  de- 
scription, were  terrified  at  the  test's  being  dispensed  with 
in  the  case  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  who,  supported  as 
they  were  by  the  King's  favour,  were  justly  to  be  regard- 
ed as  the  most  formidable  enemies  of  all  whom  they 
termed  heretics. 

The  consequence  of  all  this  reasoning  was,  that  the 
Episcopal  party  in  Scotland,  who  had  hitherto  complied 
with  every  measure  which  James  had  proposed,  now 
stopped  short  in  their  career,  and  would  no  longer  keep 
pace  with  his  wishes.  He  could  get  no  answer  from  the 
Scottish  Parliament,  excepting  the  ambiguous  expression, 
that  they  would  do  as  much  for  the  relief  of  the  Catholics 
as  their  consciences  would  permit. 

But  James,  although  he  applied  to  Parliament  in  the 
first  instance,  had  secretly  formed  the  resolution  of  taking 
away  the  effect  of  the  penal  laws,  and  removing  the  Test 
Act,  by  his  own  royal  prerogative  ;  not  regarding  the 
hatred  and  jealousy  which  he  was  sure  to  excite,  by  a 
course  of  conduct  offensive  at  once  to  the  liberties  of  his 
subjects,  and  threatening  the  stability  of  the  Reformed 
religion. 

The  pretence  on  which  this  stretch  of  his  royal  prerog- 
ative was  exerted,  was  very  slender.  The  right  had 
been  claimed,  and  occasionally  exercised,  by  the  Kings  of 
England,  of  dispensing  with  penal  statutes  in  such  indi- 
vidual cases  as  might  require  exception  or  indulgence. 
This  right  somewhat  resembled  the  Crown's  power  of 
pardoning  criminals  whom  the  law  has  adjudged  to  death  • 
but,  like  the  power  of  pardon,  the  dispensing  privilege 
could  only  be  considered  as  extending  to  peculiar  cases. 
So  that  when  the  King  pretended  to  suspend  the  effect  of 
the  penal  laws  in  all  instances  whatsoever,  it  was  just  as 


ANNUL    THE    TEST    ACT.  85 

if,  because  in  possession  of  the  power  of  pardoning  a  man 
convicted  of  murder,  he  had  claimed  the  right  to  pro- 
nounce that  murder  should  in  no  case  be  held  a  capital 
cnm  .  This  reasoning  was  undeniable.  Nevertheless, 
at  the  risk  of  all  the  disaffection  which  such  conduct  was 
certain  to  excite,  James  was  rash  enough  to  put  forth  a 
royal  proclamation,  in  which,  by  his  own  authority,  he  dis- 
pensed at  once  with  all  the  penal  laws  affecting  Catholics, 
and  annulled  the  oath  of  Supremacy  and  the  Test,  so  that 
a  Catholic  became  as  capable  of  public  employment  as  a 
Protestant.  At  the  same  time,  to  maintain  some  appear- 
ance of  impartiality,  an  indulgence  was  granted  to  mode- 
rate Presbyterians,  while  the  laws  against  the  conventicles 
which  met  in  arms,  and  in  the  open  fields,  were  confirmed 
and  enforced. 

In  this  arbitrary  and  violent  proceeding,  James  was 
chiefly  directed  by  a  few  Catholic  counsellors,  none  01 
whom  had  much  reputation  for  talent,  while  most  of  them 
were  inspired  by  a  misjudging  zeal  for  their  religion,  and 
dreamt  they  saw  the  restoration  of  Popery  at  hand.  To 
these  must  be  added  two  or  three  statesmen,  who,  being 
originally  Protestants,  had  adopted  the  Catholic  religion 
in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  King.  From  these 
men,  who  had  sacrificed  conscience  and  decency  to  court 
favour,  the  very  worst  advice  was  to  be  apprehended, 
since  they  were  sure  to  assert  to  extremity  the  character 
which  they  had  adopted  on  the  ground  of  self-interest. 
Such  a  minister  was  the  Earl  of  Perth,  Chancellor  of 
Scotland,  who  served  the  King's  pleasure  to  the  uttermost 
in  that  kingdom  ;  and  such,  too,  was  the  far  more  able 
and  dangerous  Earl  of  Sunderland  in  England,  who  under 
the  guise  of  the  most  obsequious  obedience  to  the  King's 
pleasure,  made  it  his  study  to  drive  James  on  to  the  most 
extravagant  measures,  with  the  secret  resolution  of  de- 
serting him  as  soon  as  he  should  see  him  in  danger  of 
perishing  by  means  of  the  tempest  which  he  had  encour- 
a°ed  hi'n  wantonly  to  provoke. 


56  ATTEMPTS    TO    CONCILIATE. 

The  sincerity  of  those  converts  who  change  their  faith 
at  a  moment  when  favour  and  power  can  be  obtained  by 
the  exchange,  must  always  be  doubtful,  and  no  character 
inspires  more  contempt  than  that  of  an  apostate  who  de- 
serts his  religion  for  love  of  gain.  Not,  however,  listening 
to  these  obvious  considerations,  the  King  seemed  to  press 
on  the  conversion  of  his  subjects  to  the  Roman  Caiholic 
faith,  without  observing  that  each  proselyte,  by  the  fact 
of  becoming  so,  was  rendered  generally  contemptible,  and 
lost  any  influence  he  might  have  formerly  possessed.  In- 
deed, the  King's  rage  for  making  converts  was  driven  to 
such  a  height  by  his  obsequious  ministers,  that  an  igno- 
rant negro,  the  servant  or  slave  of  one  Read,  a  mounte- 
bank, was  publicly  baptized  after  the  Catholic  ritual  upon 
a  stage  in  the  High  Street  of  Edinburgh,  and  christened 
Jarnes,  in  honour,  it  was  said,  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
James  Earl  of  Perth,  King  James  himself,  and  the  Apos- 
tle James. 

While  the  King  was  deserted  by  his  old  friends  and 
allies  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  he  probably  expected  that 
his  enemies  the  Presbyterians  would  have  been  conciliated 
by  the  unexpected  lenity  which  they  experienced.  To 
bring  this  about,  the  indulgence  was  gradually  extended 
until  it  comprehended  almost  a  total  abrogation  of  all  the 
oppressive  laws  respecting  fanatics  and  conventicles,  the 
Cameronians  alone  being  excepted,  who  disowned  thfa 
King's  authority.  But  the  Protestant  nonconformists, 
being  wise  enough  to  penetrate  into  the  schemes  of  the 
Prince,  remained  determined  not  to  form  a  union  with  the 
Catholics,  or  to  believe  that  the  King  had  any  other  object 
in  view  than  the  destruction  of  Protestants  of  every  de- 
scription. 

Some  ministers,  indeed,  received  the  toleration  with 
thanks  and  flattery  ;  and  several  Presbyterians  of  rank 
accepted  offices  under  government  in  the  room  of  Epis- 
copalians, who  had  resigned  rather  than  acquiesce  in  the 
rlispensation  of  the  penal  laws.  But,  to  use  their  own 
expressions,  the  more  clear-sighted  Presbyterians  plainly 
saw  that  they  had  been  less  aggrieved  with  the  ~vounda. 


THE    PRESBYTERIANS.  87 

stabs,  and  strokes,  which  the  church  had  formerly  receiv- 
ed, than  by  this  pretended  Indulgence,  which  they  likened 
to  the  cruel  courtesy  of  Joab,  who  gave  a  salute  to  Abner, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  stabbed  him  under  the  fifth  rib. 
This  was  openly  maintained  by  one  large  party  among  the 
Presbyterians,  while  the  more  moderate  admitted,  that  in- 
deed Heaven  had  made  the  King  its  instrument  to  procure 
•ome  advantage  to  the  church  ;  but  that  as  they  were 
convinced  the  favour  shown  to  them  was  not  sincere,  but 
bestowed  with  the  purpose  of  disuniting  Protestants 
amongst  themselves,  they  owed  him  little  gratitude  for  that 
which  he  bestowed,  not  from  any  good  will  to  them,  but 
to  further  his  own  purposes. 

These  discords  between  the  King  and  his  former  friends 
in  Scotland  occasioned  many  changes  in  the  administration 
of  the  country.  The  Duke  of  Queensberry,  who  had 
succeeded  Lauderdale  in  his  unlimited  authority,  and  had 
shown  the  same  disposition  to  gratify  the  King  upon  all 
former  occasions,  was  now  disgraced  on  account  of  his 
reluctance  to  assent  to  the  rash  measures  adopted  in  favour 
of  the  Catholics.  Perth,  and  Melfort,  the  last  also  a  con- 
vert to  the  Catholic  faith,  were  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
administration.  On  the  other  hand,  Sir  George  IVJac- 
Kenzie,  long  King's  Advocate,  and  so  severe  against  the 
Covenanters  that  he  received  the  name  of  the  Bloody 
MacKenzie,  refused  to  countenance  the  revocation  of  the 
penal  laws,  and  was,  like  Queensberry,  deprived  of  his 
office.  Sir  James  Stewart  of  Goodtrees,  named  in  his 
stead,  was  a  Presbyterian  of  the  more  rigid  sort,  such  as 
were  usually  called  fanatics.  Judges  were  also  created 
from  the  same  oppressed  party.  But  none  of  the  non- 
conformists so  promoted,  however  gratified  with  their  own 
advancement,  either  forgot  the  severity  with  which  their 
sect  had  been  treated,  through  the  express  interference 
and  influence  of  James,  or  gave  the  infatuated  monarch 
credit  for  sincerity  in  his  apparent  change  of  disposition 
towards  them. 

Insensible  to  the  general  loss  of  his  friends  and  parti- 
sans, James  proceeded  to  press  the  exercise  of  his  dis* 


B3  ATTEMPTS    TO    INTRODUCE 

pensing  power.  By  a  new  order  from  court,  the  most, 
ridiculous  and  irritating  that  could  well  be  imagined,  all 
persons  in  civil  employment,  without  exception,  were  or- 
dered to  lay  down  their  offices,  and  resume  them  again 
by  a  new  commission,  without  taking  the  test  ;  which 
reassumption,  being  an  act  done  against  the  existing  laws, 
they  were  required  instantly  to  wipe  out,  by  taking  out  a 
remission  from  the  Crown,  for  obeying  the  royal  com- 
mand. And  it  was  declared,  that  such  as  did  not  obtain 
such  a  remission,  should  be  afterwards  incapable  of  par- 
don, and  subjected  to  all  the  penalties  of  not  having  taken 
the  test.  Thus,  the  King  laid  his  commands  upon  his 
subjects  to  break  one  of  the  standing  laws  of  the  king- 
dom, and  then  stood  prepared  to  enforce  against  them  the 
penalty  which  they  had  incurred,  (a  penalty  due  to  the 
Crown  itself,)  unless  they  consented  to  shelter  themselves 
by  accepting  a  pardon  from  the  King  for  a  crime  which 
they  had  committed  by  his  order,  and  thus  far  acknow- 
ledge his  illegal  power  to  suspend  the  laws.  In  this  man- 
ner, it  was  expected  that  all  official  persons  would  be  com- 
pelled personally  to  act  under  and  acknowledge  the  King's 
power  of  dispensing  with  the  constitution. 

In  England,  the  same  course  of  misgovernment  was  so 
openly  pursued,  that  no  room  was  left  the  people  to  doubt 
that  James  designed  to  imitate  the  conduct  of  his  friend 
and  ally,  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  in  the  usurpation  of  des- 
potic, power  over  the  bodies  and  consciences  of  his  subjects. 
It  was  just  about  this  time  that  the  French  monarch  re- 
voked the  toleration  which  had  been  granted  by  Henry 
IV.  to  the  French  Protestants,  and  forced  upwards  of  half 
a  million  of  his  subjects,  offending  in  nothing  excepting 
their  worshipping  God  after  the  Protestant  manner,  into 
exile  from  their  native  country.  Many  thousands  of  these 
persecuted  men  found  refuge  in  Great  Britain,  and  by  the 
accounts  they  gave  of  the  injustice  and  cruelty  with  which 
they  had  been  treated,  increased  the  general  hatred  and 
dread  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and,  in  consequence,  the 
public  jealousy  of  a  Prince  who  was  the  bigoted  follow- 
er of  its  tenets. 


CATHOLIC    ASCENDENCY.  89 

But  James  was  totally  blind  to  the  dangerous  precijucs 
on  which  he  stood,  and  imagined  that  the  murmurs  of  the 
people  might  be  suppressed  by  the  large  standing  army 
which  he  maintained,  a  considerable  part  of  which,  in 
order  to  overawe  the  city  of  London,  lay  encamped  at 
Hounslow-Heath. 

To  be  still  more  assured  of  the  fidelity  of  his  army, 
the  King  was  desirous  to  introduce  amongst  them  a  num- 
ber of  Catholic  officers,  and  also  to  convert  as  many  ot 
the  soldiers  as  possible  to  that  religion.  But  even  among 
a  set  of  men,  who  from  their  habits  are  the  most  disposed 
to  obedience,  and  perhaps  the  most  indifferent  about  reli- 
gious distinctions,  the  name  of  Papist  was  odious  ;  and 
the  few  soldiers  who  embraced  that  persuasion  were 
treated  by  their  comrades  with  ridicule  and  contempt. 

In  a  word,  any  prince  less  obstinate  and  bigoted  than 
James,  might  easily  have  seen  that  the  army  would  not 
become  his  instrument  in  altering  the  laws  and  religion  of 
the  country.  But  he  proceeded,  with  the  most  reckless 
indifference,  to  provoke  a  struggle,  which  it  was  plain 
must  be  maintained  against  the  universal  sentiments  of  his 
subjects.  He  had  the  folly  not  only  to  set  up  the  Cath^ 
olic  worship  in  his  royal  chapel,  with  the  greatest  pomp 
and  publicity,  but  to  send  an  ambassador,  Lord  Castle- 
maine,  to  the  Pope,  to  invite  his  Holiness  to  countenance 
his  proceedings,  by  affording  him  the  presence  of  a  nun- 
cio from  the  See  of  Rome.  Such  a  communication  was, 
by  the  law  of  England,  an  act  of  high  treason,  and  ex- 
cited the  deepest  resentment  in  England,  while  abroad  it 
was  rather  ridiculed  than  applauded.  Even  the  Pope 
himself  afforded  the  bigoted  monarch  very  little  counte- 
nance in  his  undertaking,  being  probably  of  opinion  that 
James's  movements  were  too  violent  to  be  secure.  His 
Holiness  was  also  on  indifferent  terms  with  Louis  XIV., 
of  whom  James  was  a  faithful  ally,  and,  on  the  whole, 
the  Pope  was  so  little  disposed  to  sympathize  with  the 
imprudent  efforts  of  the  English  Monarch  in  favour  ol 
the  Catholic  religion  that  he  contrived  to  evade  every 

900 


90  ECCLESIASTICAL    COMMISSION. 

attempt  of  Lord  Castlemaine  to  enter  upon  business,  by 
affecting  a  violent  fit  of  coughing  whenever  the  conveisa- 
tion  took  that  turn.  Yet  even  this  coldness,  on  the  part 
of  one  necessarily  so  partial  to  his  views,  and  so  intimate- 
ly concerned  in  the  issue  of  his  attempt,  did  not  chill  the 
insane  zeal  of  the  English  monarch. 

To  attain  his  purpose  with  some  degree  of  grace  from 
Parliament,  which,  though  he  affected  to  despise  it,  he 
was  still  desirous  of  conciliating,  the  King  took  the  most 
unconstitutional  measures  to  influence  the  members  of' 
both  houses.  One  mode  was  by  admitting  individuals  to 
private  audiences,  called  Closetings,  and  using  all  the 
personal  arguments,  promises,  and  threats,  which  his  sit- 
uation enabled  him  to  enforce,  for  the  purpose  of  induc- 
ing the  members  to  comply  with  his  views.  He  extorted 
also,  from  many  of  the  royal  burghs,  both  in  England  and 
Scotland,  the  surrender  of  their  charters,  and  substituted 
others  which  placed  the  nomination  of  their  representa- 
tives to  Parliament  in  the  hands  of  the  Crown  j  and  he 
persisted  obstinately  in  removing  Protestants  from  all 
offices  of  honour  and  trust  in  the  government,  and  in  fill- 
ing their  situations  with  Papists.  Even  his  own  brothers- 
in-law,  the  Earls  of  Clarendon  and  Rochester,  were  dis- 
graced, or  at  least  dismissed  from  their  employments, 
because  they  would  not  sacrifice  their  religious  principles 
to  the  King's  arguments  and  promises. 

Amid  so  many  subjects  of  jealousy,  all  uniting  to  show, 
that  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  King  to  assume  arbitrary 
power,  and  by  the  force  of  tyranny  over  the  rights  and 
Jives  of  his  subjects,  to  achieve  a  change  in  tfie  national 
religion,  those  operations  which  immediately  affected  the 
church,  were  the  objects  of  peculiar  attention. 

As  early  in  his  unhappy  career  as  1686,  »lie  year  fol- 
lowing that  of  his  accession  to  the  throne,  James  had 
ventured  to  re-establish  one  of  the  most  obnoxious  insti- 
tutions in  his  father's  reign,  namely,  the  Court  of  High 
Ecclesiastical  Commission,  for  trying  all  offences  of  the 
clergy.  This  oppressive  and  vexatious  judicature  had 
ueen  aooiished  in  Charles  the  First's  time,  along  with  the 


ATTACK    ON    THE    UNIVERSITIES.  91 

Star-Chamber,  and  it  was  declared  by  act  of  Parliament 
that  it  should  never  be  again  erected.  Yet  the  King,  in 
spite  of  experience  and  of  law,  recalled  to  life  this  op- 
pressive court,  in  order  to  employ  its  arbitrary  authority 
in  support  of  the  cause  of  Popery.  Sharpe,  a  clergyman 
of  London,  had  preached  with  vehemence  in  the  contro- 
versy between  Protestants  and  Catholics,  and  some  of  the 
expressions  he  made  use  of  were  interpreted  to  reflect 
on  the  King.  Sharpe  endeavoured  to  apologize,  but  nev- 
ertheless the  Bishop  of  London  received  orders  to  sus- 
pend the  preacher  from  his  functions.  That  prelate  ex- 
cused himself  from  obedience,  because  he  had  no  power 
to  proceed  thus  summarily  against  a  person  not  convicted 
of  any  offence.  The  Bishop's  excuse,  as  well  as  Sharpe's 
apology,  were  disregarded,  and  both  were  suspended 
from  their  functions  by  this  illegal  court  ;  the  preacher, 
because  he  exerted  himself,  as  his  profession  required,  in 
combating  the  arguments  by  which  many  were  seduced 
from  the  Protestant  faith  ;  the  prelate,  because  he  de- 
clined to  be  an  instrument  of  illegal  oppression.  The 
people  saw  the  result  of  this  trial,  with  a  deep  sense  of 
the  illegality  shown,  and  the  injustice  inflicted. 

The  Universities  were  equally  the  object  of  the  King's 
unprovoked  aggressions.  It  was  in  their  bosom  that  the 
youth  of  the  kingdom,  more  especially  those  destined  for 
the  clerical  profession,  received  the  necessary  instruction, 
and  James  naturally  concluded,  that  to  introduce  the 
Catholic  influence  into  these  two  great  and  learned  bodies, 
would  prove  a  most  important  step  in  his  grand  plan  of 
re-establishing  that  religion  in  England. 

The  experiment  upon  Cambridge  was  a  slight  one. 
The  King,  by  his  mandate,  required  the  University  to 
confer  a  degree  of  master  of  arts  upon  Father  Francis, 
a  Benedictine  monk.  Academical  honours  of  this  kind 
are  generally  conferred  without  respect  to  the  religion  ot 
the  party  receiving  them  ;  and  indeed  the  University  had, 
not  very  long  before,  admitted  a  Mahomedan  to  the  de- 
gree of  master  of  arts  :  but  that  was  an  honorary  degree 
only  whereas  what  was  demanded  for  the  Benedictine 


92  ATTACK    ON    THE    UNIVERSITIES. 

monk  inferred  a  right  to  sit  and  vote  in  the  elections  of 
the  University,  whose  members,  considering  that  the  Pa- 
pists so  introduced  might  soon  control  the  Protestants, 
resolved  to  oppose  the  King's  purpose  in  the  commence- 
ment, and  refused  to  grant  the  degree  required.  The 
Court  of  High  Commission  suspended  the  Vice-Chan- 
cellor, but  the  University  chose  a  man  of  the  same  de- 
termined spirit  in  his  room  ;  so  that  the  King  was  not  the 
nearer  to  his  object,  which  he  was  compelled  for  the 
present  to  abandon. 

Oxford,  however,  was  attacked  with  more  violence, 
and  the  consequences  were  more  important.  That  cele- 
brated University  had  been  distinguished  by  its  unaltera- 
ble attachment  to  the  Royal  cause.  When  Charles  I. 
was  compelled  to  quit  London,  he  found  a  retreat  at 
Oxford,  where  the  various  colleges  expended  in  support- 
ing his  cause  whatever  wealth  they  possessed,  while  many 
members  of  the  University  exposed  their  lives  in  his 
service.  In  Charles  the  Second's  time,  Oxford,  on  ac- 
count of  its  inflexible  loyalty,  had  been  chosen  as  the 
place  where  the  King  convoked  a  short  Parliament,  when 
the  interest  of  the  Whigs  in  the  city  of  London  was  so 
strong  as  to  render  him  fearful  of  remaining  in  its  vicin- 
ity. It  was  less  to  the  honour  of  the  University,  that 
they  had  shown  themselves  the  most  zealous  in  express- 
ing, and  enforcing  by  their  ordinances,  the  slavish  tenets 
of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance  to  the  royal  au- 
thority, which  were  then  professed  by  many  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England  ;  but  it  was  an  additional 
proof,  that  their  devotion  to  the  King  was  almost  unlimited. 

But  if  James  recollected  anything  whatever  of  these 
marks  of  loyalty  to  the  Crown,  the  remembrance  served 
only  to  encourage  him  in  his  attack  upon  the  privileges  01 
the  University,  in  the  belief  that  they  would  not  be  firmly 
resisted.  With  ingratitude,  therefore,  as  well  as  folly,  he 
proceeded  to  intrude  his  mandate  on  the  society  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  commanding  them  to  choose  for  their 
president  one  of  the  new  converts  to  the  Catholic  religion, 
and  on  their  refusil,  expelled  them  from  the  college 


PROSECUTION    OF    THE    BISHOPS.  93 

thus  depriving  them  of  their  revenues  and  settlement  in 
life,  beca  ise  they  would  not  transgress  the  statutes,  to 
the  observance  of  which  they  nad  solemnly  sworn. 

A  still  more  fatal  error,  which  seems  indeed  to  have 
carried  James's  imprudence  to  the  uttermost,  was  the 
ever-memorable  prosecution  of  the  Bishops,  which  had 
its  origin  in  the  following  circumstances.  In  1688,  James 
published  a  second  declaration  of  indulgence,  with  an 
order  subjoined,  by  which  it  was  appointed  to  be  read  in 
all  the  churches.  The  greater  part  of  the  English  bish- 
ops, disapproving  of  the  King's  pretended  prerogative  of 
dispensing  with  the  test  and  penal  laws,  resolved  to  refuse 
obedience  to  this  order,  which,  as  their  sentiments  were 
well  known,  could  only  be  intended  to  disgrace  them  in 
the  eyes  of  the  people.  Six  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  the  prelates  joined  with  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury in  a  humble  petition  to  the  King,  praying  his  Majesty 
would  dispense  with  their  causing  to  be  published  in  their 
diocesses  a  declaration  founded  upon  the  claim  of  royal 
dispensation,  which  claim  having  been  repeatedly  declar- 
ed illegal^  the  petitioners  could  not,  in  prudence,  honour, 
or  conscience,  be  accessary  to  distributing  a  paper,  which 
asserted  its  validity  in  so  solemn  a  manner  all  over  the 
nation. 

The  King  was  highly  incensed  at  this  remonstrance, 
and  summoning  the  seven  prelates  before  his  Privy  Coun- 
cil, he  demanded  of  them  if  they  owned  and  adhered  to 
their  petition.  They  at  once  acknowledged  that  they  did 
so,  and  were  instantly  committed  to  the  Tower,  upon  a 
charge  of  sedition.  The  rank  and  respectability  of  these 
distinguished  men,  the  nature  of  the  charge  against  whom, 
m  the  popular  apprehension,  was  an  attempt  to  punish 
them  for  a  bold,  yet  respectful  discharge  of  their  high 
duties,  coupled  with  the  anxious  dread  of  what  might  be 
expected  to  follow  such  a  violent  procedure,  wrought  up 
(he  minds  of  the  people  to  the  highest  pitch. 

An  immense  multitude  assembled  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames,  and  beheld  with  grief  and  wonder  those  fathers 
of  the  Church  conveyed  to  prison  in  the  boats  appointed 


94  PROSECUTION    OF    THE    UISIIOI'S. 

lor  that  purpose.  The  enthusiasm  was  extreme.  The* 
wept,  they  kneeled,  they  prayed  for  the  safety  of  the 
prisoners,  which  was  only  endangered  hy  the  firmness 
with  which  they  had  held  fast  their  duty  ;  and  the  bene- 
dictions which  the  persecuted  divines  distributed  on  every 
side,  were  answered  with  the  warmest  wishes  for  theii 
freedom,  and  the  most  unreserved  avowal  of  their  cause. 
All  this  enthusiasm  of  popular  feeling  was  insufficient  to 
open  James's  eyes  to  his  madness.  He  urged  on  the 
proceedings  against  the  prelates,  who,  on  the  17th  June, 
1688,  were  brought  to  trial,  and,  after  a  long  and  most 
interesting  hearing  of  their  cause  were  fully  acquitted. 
The  acclamations  of  the  multitude  were  loud  in  propor- 
tion to  the  universal  anxiety  which  prevailed  while  the 
case  was  in  dependence  ;  and  when  the  news  reached 
the  camp  at  Hounslow,  the  extravagant  rejoicings  of  the 
soldiers,  unchecked  by  the  King's  own  presence,  showed 
that  the  army  and  the  people  were  animated  by  the  same 
spirit. 

Yet  James  was  so  little  influenced  by  this  universal 
expression  of  adherence  to  the  Protestant  cause,  that  he 
continued  his  headlong  career  with  a  degree  of  rapidity, 
which  compelled  the  reflecting  part  of  the  Catholics 
themselves  to  doubt  and  fear  the  event.  He  renewed  his 
violent  interference  with  the  Universities,  endeavoured  to 
thrust  on  Magdalen  College  a  Popish  Bishop,  and  resolv- 
ed to  prosecute  every  clergyman  who  would  refuse  to 
read  his  declaration  of  indulgence,  that  is  to  say,  with 
the  exception  of  an  inconsiderable  minority,  the  whole 
Church  of  England. 

While  the  kingdoms  of  Scotland  and  England  were 
ag'uated  by  these  violent  attempts  to  establish  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  their  fears  were  roused  to  the  highest 
pitch  by  observing  with  what  gigantic  strides  the  King 
was  advancing  to  the  same  object  in  Ireland,  where,  the 
great  body  of  the  people  being  Catholics,  he  had  no  oc- 
casion to  disguise  his  purposes.  Lord  Tyrconnell,  a 
headstrong  and  violent  man,  and  a  Catholic  of  course 
was  appointed  Viceroy,  and  proceeded  to  take  every  step 


VIEWS    OF    THE    PRINCE    OF    ORANGE.  95 

necessary,  by  arming  the  Papists  and  depressing  the 
Protestants,  to  prepare  for  a  total  change,  in  which  the 
latter  should  be  subjugated  by  a  Catholic  Parliament. 
The  violence  of  the  King's  conduct  in  a  country  where 
he  was  not  under  the  necessity  of  keeping  any  fair  ap- 
pearances, too  plainly  showed  the  Protestants  of  England 
and  Scotland,  that  the  measure,  presented  to  them  as 
one  of  general  toleration  for  all  Christian  sects,  was  in 
fact  designed  to  achieve  the  supremacy  of  the  Catholic 
faith  over  heresy  of  every  denomination. 

During  all  this  course  of  mal-administration,  the  sen- 
sible and  prudent  part  of  the  nation  kept  their  eyes  fixed 
on  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  married,  as  I  have  before 
told  you,  to  James's  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  and  heir  to 
the  throne,  unless  it  happened  that  the  King  should  have 
a  son  by  his  present  Queen.  This  was  an  event  which 
had  been  long  held  improbable,  for  the  children  which 
the  Queen  had  hitherto  borne  were  of  a  very  weak  con- 
stitution, and  did  not  long  survive  their  birth  ;  and  James 
himself  was  now  an  elderly  man. 

The  Prince  of  Orange,  therefore,  having  a  fair  pros- 
pect of  attaining  the  throne  after  his  father-in-law's  death, 
observed  great  caution  in  his  communications  with  the 
numerous  and  various  factions  in  England  and  Scotland  ; 
and  even  to  those  who  expressed  the  greatest  moderation 
and  the  purest  sentiments  of  patriotism,  he  replied  with 
a  prudent  reserve,  exhorting  them  to  patience,  dissuading 
from  all  hasty  insurrections,  and  pointing  out  to  them,  that 
the  death  of  the  King  must  put  an  end  to  the  innovations 
which  he  was  attempting  on  the  constitution. 

Bat  an  event  took  place  which  entirely  altered  the 
Prince  of  Orange's  views  and  feelings,  and  forced  him 
upon  an  enterprise,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  its 
progress  and  consequences  of  any  which  the  history  d 
the  world  affords.  Mary,  Queen  of  England,  and  wife 
of  James  II.,  was  delivered  of  a  male  child,  on  the  10th 
of  June,  168S.  The  Papists  had  long  looked  forward  to 
(his  event  as  to  one  which  should  perpetuate  the  measures 
of  the  King  in  favour  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  after  his 


96  BIRTH    OF   THE    PRINCE    OF   WALES. 

own  death.  They  had,  therefore,  ventured  to  prcphesy 
that  the  expected  infant  would  be  a  son,  and  they  imput- 
ed the  fulfilment  of  their  wishes  to  the  intervention  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  of  Loretto,  propitiated  by  prayers  and  pil- 
grimage. 

The  Protestant  party,  on  the  other  hand,  were  dispos- 
ed to  consider  the  alleged  birth  of  the  infant,  which  had 
happened  so  seasonably  for  the  Catholics,  as  the  result 
not  of  a  miracle  of  the  Popish  saints,  but  of  a  trick  at 
court.  They  affirmed  that  the  child  was  not  really  the 
son  of  James  and  his  wife,  but  a  supposititious  infant, 
whom  they  were  desirous  to  palm  upon  their  subjects  as 
the  legal  heir  of  the  throne,  in  order  to  defeat  the  claim 
of  the  Protestant  successors.  This  assertion,  though 
gravely  swallowed  by  the  people,  and  widely  spread 
amongst  them,  was  totally  without  foundation  ;  nor  was 
it  possible  that  there  could  exist  more  complete  proof  of 
such  a  fact,  than  James  himself  published  to  the  world 
concerning  the  birth  of  this  young  Prince  of  Wales.  But 
the  King's  declarations,  and  the  evidence  which  he  at 
length  made  public,  were  unable  to  bear  down  the  cal- 
umny which  was  so  widely  and  anxiously  circulated. 
The  leaders  of  the  Protestant  party,  whatever  they  might 
themselves  believe,  took  care  to  make  the  rumour  of  the 
alleged  imposture  as  general  as  possible  ;  and  many, 
whose  Tory  principles  would  not  have  allowed  them  to 
oppose  the  succession  of  a  prince  really  descended  ol 
the  blood  royal,  stood  prepared  to  dispute  the  right  of 
the  infant  to  succeed  to  the  throne,  on  account  of  the 
asserted  doubtfiHness  of  his  birth. 

One  thing,  however,  was  certain,  that  whether  the 
child  was  supposititious  or  not,  his  birth  was  likely  to 
prolong  the  misgovernment  under  which  the  country 
groaned.  There  now  existed  no  longer  the  prospect  that 
James  would  be  succeeded  by  his  son-in-law,  the  Prince 
of  Orange,  with  whom  the  Protestant  religion  must  ne- 
cessarily have  recovered  its  predominance.  This  infant 
was  of  course  to  be  trained  up  in  the  religion  and  princi- 
ples of  his  father  ;  and  the  influence  of  the  dreaded 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    AN    INVASION.  97 

spirit  of  Popery,  instead  of  terminating  with  the  present 
reign,  would  maintain  and  extend  itself  through  that  of  a 
youthful  successor.  The  Prince  of  Orange,  on  his  part, 
seeing  himself,  by  the  birth  and  rights  of  this  infant,  ex- 
cluded from  the  long-hoped-for  succession  to  the  Crown 
of  England,  laid  aside  his  caution,  for  a  bold  and  active 
interference  in  British  politics. 

He  now  publicly,  though  with  decency,  declared  that 
his  sentiments  were  opposite  to  those  on  which  his  father- 
in-law  acted,  and  that  though  he  was  disposed  to  give  a 
hearty  consent  to  repealing  penal  statutes  in  all  cases,  be- 
ing of  opinion  that  no  one  should  be  punished  for  his  re- 
ligious opinions,  yet  he  could  not  acquiesce  in  the  King's 
claim  to  dispense  with  the  lest,  which  only  excluded  from 
public  offices  those  whose  consciences  would  not  permit 
them  to  conform  to  the  established  religion  of  the  country 
in  which  they  lived.  Having  thus  openly  declared  his 
sentiments,  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  resorted  to  openly 
or  secretly,  by  all  those,  of  whatever  political  opinions, 
who  joined  in  the  general  fear  for  the  religious  and  civil 
liberties  of  the  country,  which  were  threatened  by  the 
bigotry  of  James.  Encouraged  by  the  universal  senti- 
ments of  the  English  nation,  a  few  Catholics  excepted, 
and  by  the  urgent  remonstrances  of  many  of  the  leading 
men  of  all  the  various  parties,  the  Prince  of  Orange  re- 
solved to  appear  in  England  at  the  head  of  an  armed  force, 
with  the  purpose  of  putting  a  stop  to  James's  encroach- 
ments on  the  constitution  in  church  and  state. 

Under  various  plausible  pretexts,  therefore,  the  Prince 
began  to  assemble  a  navy  and  army  adequate  to  the  bold 
invasion  which  he  meditated  ;  while  neither  the  warning 
of  the  King  of  France,  who  penetrated  the  purpose  of 
these  preparations,  nor  a  sense  of  the  condition  in  which 
he  himself  stood,  could  induce  James  to  take  any  ade- 
quate measures  of  defence. 

The  unfortunate  Prince  continued  to  follow  the  same 
measures  which  had  lost  him  the  hearts  of  his  subjects, 
and  every  step  he  took  encouraged  and  pr<  mnpted  disaf- 


i*8  INEFFECTUAL    APPEAL    OF    JAMES     II. 

fection.  Dubioi  s  of  the  allegiance  of  his  army,  he  en- 
deavoured, by  introducing  Irish  Catholics  amongst  them, 
to  (ill  their  ranks,  in  part  at  least,  with  men  in  whom  he 
might  repose  more  confidence.  But  the  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  and  five  Captains  of  the  regiment  in  which  the  ex- 
periment was  first  tried,  refused  to  receive  the  proposed 
recruits  ;  and  though  these  officers  Were  cashiered  for 
doing  so,  yet  their  spirit  was  generally  applauded  by  those 
of  their  own  profession. 

Another  experiment  on  the  soldiery  had  a  still  mor° 
mortifying  result.  Although  it  is  contrary  to  the  British 
constitution  to  engage  soldiers  under  arms  in  the  discus- 
sion of  any  political  doctrine,  since  they  must  be  regarded 
as  the  servants,  not  the  counsellors,  of  the  state  ;  never- 
theless, James  resolved,  if  possible,  to  obtain  from  the 
army  their  approbation  of  the  repeal  of  the  test  and  the 
penal  statutes.  By  way  of  experiment,  a  single  battal- 
ion was  drawn  up  in  his  own  presence,  and  informed, 
that  they  must  either  express  their  hearty  acquiescence  in 
the  King's  purposes  in  respect  to  these  laws,  or  lay  down 
their  arms,  such  being  the  sole  condition  on  which  their 
services  would  be  received.  On  hearing  this  appeal,  the 
whole  regiment,  excepting  two  officers  and  a  few  Catholic 
soldiers,  laid  down  their  arms.  The  King  stood  mute 
with  anger  and  disappointment,  and  at  length  told  them, 
in  a  sullen  and  offended  tone,  to  take  up  their  arms  and 
retire  to  their  quarters,  adding,  that  he  would  not  again  do 
them  the  honour  to  ask  their  opinions. 

While  James  was  thus  extorting  from  his  very  soldiers 
opinions  the  most  unfavourable  to  his  measures,  he  sud- 
denly received  intelligence  from  his  ambassador  in  Hol- 
land, that  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  about  to  put  to  sea 
with  an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  supplied  by  all  the 
States  of  Holland,  and  a  fleet  of  five  hundred  sail. 

Conscious  that  he  had  lost  the  best  safeguard  of  a  mon- 
arch,— namely,  the  love  and  affections  of  his  subjects, 
this  news  came  upon  James  like  a  thunder-clap.  He 
hastened  to  retract  all  the  measures  which  had  rendered 
his  reign  so  unpopular  ;  but  it  was  with  a  precipitation 


TO    THE    ARMY.  99 

which  showed  fear,  not  conviction,  and  the  people  were 
persuaded  that  the  concessions  would  be  recalled  as  soon 
as  the  danger  was  over. 

In  the  meantime  the  Dutch  fleet  set  sail.  At  first  it 
encountered  a  storm,  and  was  driven  back  into  harbour. 
I3ut  the  damage  sustained  by  some  of  the  vessels  being 
speedily  repaired,  they  again  put  to  sea,  and  with  so  much 
activity,  that  the  short  delay  proved  rather  of  service  than 
otherwise  ;  for  the  English  fleet,  which  had  also  been 
Driven  into  harbour  by  the  storm,  could  not  be  got  ready 
to  ineet  the  invaders.  Steering  for  the  west  of  England, 
the  Prince  of  Orange  landed  in  Torbay,  on  the  5th  No- 
vember, 1688,  being  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpowder 
Plot,  an  era  which  seemed  propitious  to  an  enterprise  com- 
menced in  opposition  to  the  revival  of  Popery  in  Eng- 
land. 

Immediately  on  his  landing,  the  Prince  published  a 
manifesto,  setting  forth,  in  plain  and  strong  terms,  the  va- 
rious encroachments  made  by  the  reigning  monarch  upon 
the  British  constitution,  and  upon  the  rights  as  well  of  the 
church  as  of  private  persons  and  corporate  bodies.  He 
came,  he  said,  with  an  armed  force,  to  protect  his  person 
from  the  King's  evil  counsellors,  but  his  only  purpose  was 
to  have  a  full  and  free  Parliament  assembled,  in  order  to 
procure  a  gerieral  .settlement  of  religion,  liberty,  and 
property. 

Notwithstanding  that  so  many  persons  of  rank  and  in 
fluence  had  privately  encouraged  the  Prince  of  Orange 
to  this  undertaking,  there  appeared  at  first  very  little  alac- 
rity to  support  him  in  carrying  it  through.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  the  western  counties  where  the  Prince  landed, 
were  overawed  by  recollection  of  the  fearful  punishment 
inflicted  upon  those  who  had  joined  Monmouth,  and  the 
Prince  had  advanced  to  Exeter  ere  he  was  joined  by  any 
adherent  of  consequence.  But  from  the  time  that  one  or 
two  gentlemen  of  consideration  joined  him,  a  general  com- 
motion took  place  all  over  England,  and  the  nobility  and 
gentry  assumed  aims  on  every  side  for  redress  of  the 
grievances  set  forth  in  the  Prince'.*  manifesto. 


1(0          INVASION    OF    THE    PRINCE    OF    ORANGE. 

In  the  midst  of  this  universal  defection,  King  James 
gave  orders  to  assemble  his  army,  assigned  Salisbury  for 
his  head  quarters,  and  announced  his  purpose  of  fighting 
the  invaders.  But  he  was  doomed  to  experience  to  what 
extent  he  had  alienated  the  affections  of  his  subjects  by 
his  bigoted  and  tyrannical  conduct.  Several  noblemen 
and  officers  of  rank  publicly  deserted,  and  carried  off  to 
the  Prince's  army  numbers  of  their  soldiers.  Amongst 
these  was  Lord  Churchill,  afterwards  the  celebrated  Duke 
of  Marlborough.  He  was  a  particular  favourite  of  the 
unhappy  King,  who  had  bestowed  a  peerage  on  him,  with 
high  rank  in  the  army  ;  and  his  desertion  to  the  Prince 
on  this  occasion  showed  that  the  universal  aversion  to 
King  James's  measures  had  alienated  the  affections  of 
those  who  would  otherwise  have  been  most  devotedly  at- 
tached to  him. 

A  still  more  striking  defection  seems  to  have  destroyed 
the  remains  of  the  unhappy  monarch's  resolution.  His 
second  daughter,  the  Princess  Anne,  who  was  married  to 
a  younger  son  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  called  Prince 
George,  escaped  by  night  from  London,  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Bishop  of  that  city,  who  raised  a  body  of 
horse  for  her  protection,  and  rode  armed  at  their  head. 
She  fled  to  Nottingham,  where  she  was  received  by  the 
Earl  of  Dorset,  and  declared  for  a  free  Protestant  Parlia- 
ment. Her  husband,  and  other  persons  of  the  first  dis- 
tinction, joined  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

The  sudden  and  unexpected  dissolution  of  his  power, 
when  every  morning  brought  intelligence  of  some  new 
defection  or  insurrection,  totally  destroyed  the  firmness  of 
James,  who,  notwithstanding  his  folly  and  misconduct, 
becomes,  in  this  period  of  unmitigated  calamity,  an  object 
of  our  pity.  At  the  tidings  of  his  daughter's  flight,  he 
exclaimed,  with  the  agony  of  paternal  feeling,  "  God  help 
me,  my  own  children  desert  me  !"  In  the  extremity  and 
desolation  of  his  distress,  the  unfortunate  Monarch  seems 
to  have  lost  all  those  qualities  which  had  gained  him  in 
earlier  life  the  character  of  courage  and  sagacity  ;  and 
the  heedless  rashness  with  which  he  had  scorned  the  dis- 


FLIGHT    OF    JAMES    II.  101 

tant  danger,  was  only  equalled  by  the  prostrating  degree 
of  intimidation  which  now  overwhelmed  him. 

He  dismissed  his  army,  to  the  great  increase  of  the 
general  confusion  ;  and,  finally,  terrified  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  father's  fate,  he  resolved  to  withdraw  himself 
from  his  kingdom.  It  is  probable  that  he  could  not  have 
taken  any  resolution  which  would  have  been  so  grateful 
to  the  Prince  of  Orange.  If  James  had  remained  in 
Britain,  the  extremity  of  his  misfortunes  would  probably 
have  awakened  the  popular  compassion  ;  and  the  tenets 
of  the  High  Churchmen  and  Tories,  although  they  had 
given  way  to  their  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  religion 
and  liberty,  might,  when  these  were  considered  as  safe, 
have  raised  many  partisans  to  the  distressed  monarch. 
Besides,  while  King  James  remained  in  his  dominions,  it 
would  have  been  an  obnoxious  and  odious  attempt,  on  the 
part  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  to  have  plucked  the  crown 
forcibly  from  the  head  of  his  father-in-law,  in  order  to 
place  it  upon  his  own.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  flight 
of  the  King  into  foreign  countries  should  leave  the  throne 
unoccupied,  nothing  could  be  so  natural  as  to  place  there 
the  next  Protestant  heir  of  the  crown,  by  whose  provi- 
dential interference  the  liberties  and  constitution  of  the 
country  had  been  rescued  from  such  imminent  danger. 

Fortune  seemed  at  first  adverse  to  an  escape,  wh;ch 
King  James  desired  from  his  fears,  and  the  Prince  of 
Orange  from  his  hopes.  As  the  King,  attended  by  one 
gentleman,  endeavoured  to  get  on  board  of  a  vessel  pre- 
pared for  his  escape,  they  were  seized  by  some  rude  fish- 
ermen, who  were  looking  out  to  catch  such  priests  and 
catholics  as  were  flying  from  the  kingdom.  At  the  hands 
of  these  men  the  unfortunate  Monarch  received  some 
rough  treatment,  until  the  gentry  of  the  country  inter- 
posed for  the  protection  of  his  person,  but  still  refused  to 
permit  him  to  depart  the  kingdom.  He  was  allowed, 
however,  to  return  to  London,  where  the  rabble,  with  their 
usual  mutability,  and  moved  with  compassion  for  the  help- 


102  FLIGHT    OF    JAMES    M. 

less  state  to  which  he  was  reduced,  received  him  with 
acclamations  of  favour. 

The  Prince  of  Orange,  not  a  little  disappointed  by  this 
incident,  seems  to  have  determined  to  conduct  himself 
towards  his  father-in-law  with  such  a  strain  of  coldness 
and  severity  as  should  alarm  James  for  his  personal  safe- 
ty, and  determine  him  to  resume  his  purpose  of  flight. 
With  such  a  view,  the  Prince  refused  to  receive  the  no- 
bleman whom  the  King  had  sent  to  him  to  desire  a  con- 
ference, and  ordered  the  messenger  to  be  placed  under 
arrest.  In  reply  to  the  message,  he  issued  a  command, 
transmitted  at  midnight,  that  the  King  should  leave  his 
palace  the  next  morning.  The  dejected  sovereign  yielded 
to  the  mandate,  and,  at  his  own  request,  Rochester  was 
assigned  for  his  abode.  That  happened  which  must  have 
been  foreseen,  from  his  choosing  a  place  near  the  river  as 
his  temporary  habitation.  James  privately  embarked  on 
board  of  a  frigate,  and  was  safely  landed  at  Ambleteuse, 
in  France.  He  was  received  by  Louis  XIV.  with  the 
utmost  generosity  and  hospitality,  and  lived  lor  many  years 
at  St.  Germains,  under  his  protection  and  at  his  expense, 
excepting  only  during  a  short  campaign  (to  be  afterwards 
noticed)  in  Ireland.  Every  effort  to  replace  him  in  his 
dominions,  only  proved  destructive  to  those  who  were  en* 
gaged  in  them.  The  exiled  monarch  was  looked  upon 
with  reverence  by  sincere  Catholics,  who  counted  him  as 
a  martyr  to  his  zeal  for  the  form  of  religion  which  he 
and  they  professed  ;  but  by  others  he  was  ridiculed  as  a 
bigot,  who  had  lost  three  kingdoms  for  the  sake  of  a  mass. 

A  Convention,  as  it  was  called,  (in  effect  a  Parliament, 
though  not  such  in  form,  because  it  could  not  be  summon- 
ed in  the  King's  name,)  was  convoked  at  Westminster  ; 
and,  at  their  first  meeting,  they  returned  their  unanimous 
thanks  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  for  the  deliverance  which 
he  had  achieved  for  the  nation.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons then  proceeded,  by  a  great  majority,  to  vote  that 
King  James  had  forfeited  his  regal  title  by  a  variety  of 
encroachments  on  the  constitution  ;  that,  by  his  flight,  he 
had  abdicated  the  government  ,  and  that  the  throne  was 


SETTLEMENT    OF    THE    SUCCESSION.  103 

vacrtiit.  But  as  a  great  part  of  this  resolution  was  ad- 
verse to  the  doctrine  of  the  Tories,  who  refused  to  adopt 
it,  the  mention  of  forfeiture  was  omitted  ;  and  it  was  fi- 
nally settled,  that  by  his  evil  administration,  and  subse- 
quent flight  from  Britain,  King  James  had  abdicated  the 
throne.  And  I  cannot  forbear  to  point  out  to  you  the 
singular  wisdom  of  both  the  great  parties  in  the  state,  who, 
by  keeping  the  expressions  of  their  resolution  so  general 
as  to  clash  with  the  sentiments  of  neither,  concurred  in  a 
measure  so  important,  without  starting  any  theoretical 
disputes  to  awaken  party  contention  at  a  moment  when 
the  peace  of  England  depended  on  unanimity. 

The  throne  being  thus  declared  vacant,  the  important 
question  remained,  by  whom  it  should  be  filled.  This 
was  warmly  disputed.  The  Tories  were  contented  that 
the  Prince  of  Orange  should  exercise  the  regal  power, 
but  only  under  the  title  of  Regent.  They  could  not  re- 
concile themselves  to  the  dethroning  a  King  and  electing 
his  successor  ;  and  contended,  that  James's  course  of  mis- 
conduct did  not  deprive  him  of  his  kingly  title,  but  only 
operated  like  some  malady,  which  rendered  him  unfit  to 
have  the  exercise  of  regal  power.  The  Whigs  replied, 
that  this  doctrine  would  prevent  their  deriving  the  desired 
advantages  from  the  Revolution,  since,  if  James  was  in 
any  respect  to  be  acknowledged  as  a  sovereign,  he  might 
return  and  claim  the  power  which  is  inalienable  from  the 
royal  right.  Besides,  if  James  was  still  King,  it  was  ev- 
ident that  his  son,  who  had  been  carried  abroad,  in  order 
that  he  might  be  bred  up  in  Popery  and  in  arbitrary  doc- 
trines must  be  acknowledged  after  the  death  of  James 
himself.  They,  therefore,  declared  for  the  necessity  of 
filling  up  the  vacant  sovereignty.  A  third  party  endeav- 
oured to  fin'd  a  middle  opinion,  with  regard  to  which  the 
objections  applicable  to  those  we  have  just  expressed 
should  not  hold  good.  They  proposed  that  the  crown 
should  be  conferred  on  Mary,  Princess  of  Orange,  in  her 
own  right  ;  thus  passing  over  the  infant  Prince  of  Wales. 
and  transferring  their  allegiance  to  Mary  as  the  next  Pro 
testant  hei?  of  the  crown. 


104  SETTLEMENT    OF    THE    CKOWN 

The  Prince  of  Orange,  who  had  listened  to,  an  \  watch- 
ed these  debates  in  silence,  but  with  deep  interest,  now 
summoned  a  small  council  of  leading  persons,  to  whom 
he  made  his  sentiments  known. 

He  would  not,  he  said,  interfere  in  any  respect  with  the 
right  of  the  English  Parliament,  to  arrange  their  future 
government  according  to  their  own  laws,  or  their  own 
pleasure.  But  he  felt  it  necessary  to  acquaint  them,  that 
if  they  chose  to  be  governed  by  a  Regent,  he  would  not 
accept  that  office.  Neither  was  he  disposed  to  take  the 
government  of  the  kingdom  under  his  wife,  supposing  she 
was  chosen  Queen.  If  either  of  these  modes  of  settle- 
ment were  adopttt'l,  he  informed  them  he  would  retire 
entirely  from  all  interference  with  British  affairs.  The 
Princess,  his  wife,  seconded  her  husband's  views,  to  whom 
she  always  paid  the  highest  degree  of  conjugal  deference. 

The  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  nay 
even  the  assistance  of  his  military  force,  were  absolutely 
indispensable  to  the  settlement  of  England,  divided  as  it 
was  by  two  rival  political  parties,  who  had  indeed  been 
forced  into  union  by  the  general  fear  of  James's  tyranny, 
but  were  ready  to  renew  their  dissensions  the  instant  the 
overwhelming  pressure  of  that  fear  was  removed.  The 
Convention  were,  therefore,  obliged  to  regulate  the  suc- 
cession to  the  throne  upon  the  terms  agreeable  to  the 
Prince  of  Orange.  The  Princess  and  he  were  called  to 
the  throne  jointly,  under  the  title  of  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary,  the  survivor  succeeding  the  party  who  should 
first  die.  The  Princess  Anne  of  Denmark,  was  named 
to  succeed  after  the  death  of  her  sister  and  brother-in-law, 
and  the  claims  of  James's  infant  son  were  entirely  passed 
over. 

The  Convention  did  not  neglect  this  opportunity  to 
annex  to  the  settlement  of  the  crown  a  Declaration  of 
Rights,  determining  in  favour  of  the  subject  those  rights 
which  had  been  contested  during  the  late  reigns,  and 
drawing  with  more  accuracy  and  precision  than  had  hith- 
erto been  employed,  the  lines  which  circumscribe  the  roy- 
tl  authority. 


OX    WILLIAM    AMI    MARY.  105 

Such  was  this  memorable  Revolution,  wh  ch  (saving  a 
petty  and  accidental  skirmish)  decided  the  fate  of  a  great 
kingdom  without  bloodshed,  and  in  which,  perhaps,  for 
the  only  lime  in  history,  the  heads  of  the  discordant  fac- 
tions of  a  great  empire  laid  aside  their  mutual  suspicion 
and  animosity,  and  calmly  and  dispassionately  discussed 
the  great  concerns  of  the  nation,  without  reference  to  their 
own  interests  or  those  of  their  party.  To  the  memory  of 
this  Convention  or  Parliament,  the  Britannic  kingdoms 
owe  the  inestimable  blessing  of  a  constitution,  fixed  on  the 
decided  and  defined  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

State  of  affairs  in  Scotland  previous  to  the  Revolution 
—Endeavours  of  James  to  secure  the  Scots  to  his  In- 
terest—  The  Scottish  Jlrmy  is  ordered  to  England,  and, 
on  the  Flight  of  James,  joins  the  Prince  of  Orange — 
Expulsion  of  Captain  Wallace  from  Holyrood  House 
— Meeting  of  the  Scottish  Convention — Struggles  of 
the  Jacobite  and  Whig  Parties — Secession  of  the  dis- 
count of  Dundee,  and  Settlement  of  the  Throne  on 
King  JVilliam — Disposal  of  Offices  of  trust  in  Scot- 
land— Mr.  Carstairs  confidentially  consulted  by  King 
JVilliam. 

THE  necessity  of  explaining  the  nature  and  progress  of 
the  Revolution  of  England,  without  which  it  would  be 
impossible  for  you  to  comprehend  what  passed  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  kingdom,  has  drawn  us  away  from 
the  proper  subject  of  this  little  book,  and  makes  it  ne- 
cessary that  we  should  return  to  our  account  of  Scottish 
affairs  during  the  time  that  these  important  events  were' 
taking  place  in  England. 

We  have  mentioned  the  discontents  which  existed 
among  King  James's  most  zealous  friends  in  Scotland,  on 
account  o'f  his  pressing  the  revocation  of  the  Test,  and 
that  several  of  the  Crown  officers,  and  crown  lawyers,  and 


06  STATE    OF    AFFAIRS    IN    SCOTLAND. 

even  two  or  three  of  the  judges,  had  been  displaced  foi 
demurring  to  that  measure,  the  vacancies  being  filled  with 
Catholics  or  Presbyterians.  You  have  also  been  told, 
that  by  this  false  policy,  James  lost  the  affection  of  his 
friends  of  the  Episcopal  church,  without  being  able  to  con 
ciliate  his  ancient  enemies,  the  nonconformists. 

Thus  stood  matters  in  Scotland,  when,  in  September, 
1 688,  King  James  sent  down  to  his  council  in  Scotland,  an 
account  of  the  preparations  making  in  Holland  to  invade 
England.  Upon  this  alarming  news,  the  militia  were  or- 
dered to  be  in  readiness  ;  the  Highland  chiefs  were  di- 
rected to  prepare  their  clans  to  take  the  field  ;  and  the 
vassals  of  the  crown  were  modelled  into  regiments,  and 
furnished  with  anus.  These  forces,  joined  to  the  stand- 
ng  army,  would  have  made  a  considerable  body  of  troops. 

But  unanimity,  the  soul  of  national  resistance,  was 
wanting.  The  Scottish  Royalists  were  still  so  much  at- 
tached to  the  Crown,  and  even  to  the  person  of  James, 
that,  notwithstanding  the  late  causes  of  suspicion  and  dis- 
cord which  had  occurred  betwixt  them  and  the  King, 
there  remained  little  doubt  that  they  would  have  proved 
faithful  to  his  cause.  But  the  Presbyterians,  even  of  the 
most  moderate  party,  had  suffered  so  severely  at  James's 
hand,  both  during  his  brother's  reign,  and  his  own,  that  it 
was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  a  few  glances  of  favour  to 
which  they  seemed  to  be  admitted,  only  because  they 
could  not  be  decently  excluded  from  the  toleration  de- 
signed for  the  benefit  of  the  Catholics,  should  make  them 
forget  the  recent  terrors,  of  the  storm.  Several  of  the. gen- 
try of  this  persuasion,  however,  seemed  ready  to  serve 
the  King,  and  obtained  commissions  in  the  militia  ;  but  the 
event  showed  that  this  was  done  with  the  purpose  of  act- 
ing more  effectually  against  him. 

The  Earl  of  Perth  endeavoured  to  ascertain  the  real 
senliments  of  that  numerous  party,  oy  applying  to  them 
through  the  medium  of  Sir  Patrick  Murray,  a  person  who 
seemed  attached  to  no  particular  sect,  but  who  was  es- 
teemed by  all.  This  gentleman  applied  to  such  leading 
Presbyterian  ministers  as  were  in  Edinburgh,  reminding 


STATE    OF    ATFAIRS    IJV    SCOTLAND.  107 

them  of  the  favours  lately  shown  to  them  by  the  King,  and 
requesting  they  would  now  evince  their  gratitude  by  influ- 
encing their  hearers  to  oppose  the  unnatural  invasion  threat- 
ened by  the  Prince  of  Orange.  The  clergymen  received 
the  overture  coldly,  and  declined  to  return  an  answer  till 
there  should  be  more  of  their  brethren  in  town.  Having 
in  the  interim  obtained  information,  which  led  them  to 
expect  the  ultimate  success  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  they 
sent  as  their  answer  to  the  Earl  of  Perth,  through  Sir 
Patrick  Murray,  "  that  they  owned  the  King  had  of  late 
b^en  used  as  Heaven's  instrument,  to  show  them  some 
favour  ;  but  being  convinced  that  he  had  done  so,  only 
with  a  design  to  ruin  the  Protestant  religion,  by  introduc- 
ing dissension  among  its  professors  of  different  denomi- 
nations, and  observing,  that  the  persons  whom  he  volun- 
tarily raised  to  power,  were  either  Papists,  or  persons 
popishly  inclined,  they  desired  to  be  excused  from  giving 
any  iunlwr  answer,  saying  that  they  would  conduct  them- 
selves in  this  juncture  as  God  should  inspire." 

From  this  answer  it  was  plain  that  James  was  to  ex- 
pect nothing  from  the  Presbyterians  ;  yet  they  remained 
silent  and  quiet,  waiting  the  event,  and  overawed  by  the 
regular  troops,  who  were  posted  in  such  places  as  to  pre- 
vent open  insurrection. 

The  disaffection  of  the  English  soldiery  having  alarmed 
James's  suspicions,  he  sent  orders  that  his  Scottish  army 
should  be  drawn  together,  and  held  in  readiness  to  march 
into  England.  The  Scottish  administration  answered  by 
a  remonstrance,  that  this  measure  would  leave  the  gov- 
ernment in  Scotland  totally  defenceless,  and  encourage 
the  disaffected,  who  could  not  but  think  the  affairs  of  King 
James  in  England  were  desperate,  since  he  could  not 
dispense  with  the  assistance  of  so  sm°lla  ootiy  of  troops. 
To  this  remonstrance  the  King  replied  by  a  positive  or- 
der, that  the  Scottish  army  should  advance  into  England. 

This  little  army  might  consist  of  six  or  seven  thousand 
excellent  troops,  commanded  by  James  Douglas,  brother 
to  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  as  General -in-chief,  and  by 
the  more  celebrated  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  re« 


108  PROCKKDINGS    OF    THE 

-entfy  created  Viscount  of  Dundee,  as  Major  General. 
The  former  was  secretly  a  favourer  of  the  Prince  of  Oi- 
inge's  enterprise.  Viscount  Dundee,  on  the  other  hand, 
vas  devotedly  attached  to  the  cause  of  King  James,  and 
edeemed  some  of  his  fiercer  and  more  cruel  propensi- 
ies,  by  the  virtue  of  attaching  himself  to  his  benefactor, 
when  he  was  forsaken  by  all  the  world  besides.  It  is  said, 
that  the  march  was  protracted  by  Douglas,  lest  the  stead- 
iness of  the  Scottish  army  should  have  served  as  an  ex- 
ample to  the  English.  At  length,  however,  they  reached 
London,  where  the  Viscount  of  Dundee  claimed  a  right 
to  command,  as  eldest  Major*  General  ;  but  the  English 
officers  of  the  same  rank,  whether  out  of  national  jeal- 
ousy, or  that  Dundee's  obtaining  so  high  a  rank  might 
have  interfered  with  their  private  schemes,  positively  re- 
fused to  serve  under  him.  It  is  said,  that,  in  the  event  of 
his  obtaining  this  command,  his  design  was  to  assemble 
such  English  troops  as  yet  remained  faithful,  and,  at  the 
nead  of  these  and  the  Scottish  army,  to  have  marched 
against  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  given  him  batile.  But 
this  scheme,  which  must  have  cost  much  bloodshed,  was 
defeated  by  the  refusal  of  the  English  officers  to  fight 
under  him. 

King  James,  amidst  the  distraction  of  his  affairs,  re- 
quested the  advice  of  this  sagacious  and  determined  ad- 
herent, who  pointed  out  to  him  three  courses.  The  first 
was,  to  try  the  fate  of  war,  by  manfully  fighting  the  Prince 
of  Orange.  The  second  alternative  was,  to  meet  him  in 
friendship,  and  require  to  know  his  purpose.  The  third 
was,  to  retire  into  Scotland,  under  protection  of  the  little 
army  of  that  kingdom.  The  King,  it  is  said,  was  inclin- 
ed to  try  the  third  alternative,  but,  as  he  received  intelli- 
gence that  several  Scottish  peers  and  gentlemen  were 
come  post  to  London,  to  wait  on  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
*!«•  justly  doubttu  whether  that  kingdom  would  have  prov- 
ed a  safe  place  of  refuge.  Indeed,  he  presently  after- 
wards heard,  that  one  of  Douglas's  battalions  had  caught 
the  spirit  of  desertion,  and  gone  over  to  the  Prince. 
Shortly  after  this  untoward  event,  Dundee,  with  such 


VISCOUNT    OF    DUNDEE.  1 09 

of  his  principal  officers  as  adhered  to  the  cause  of  James, 
received  assurances  of  the  King's  disposition  to  hazard 
battle,  and  were  commanded  to  meet  him  at  Uxbridgc,  to 
consult  upon  the  movements  to  be  adopted.  When  the 
Scottish  officers  reached  the  place  appointed,  instead  ol 
meeting  with  the  King,  they  learned  that  their  misguided 
monarch  had  fled,  and  received  the  fatal  order  to  disband 
their  forces.  Dundee,  with  the  Lords  Linlithgow  and 
Dunmore,  shed  tears  of  grief  and  mortification.  In  the 
uncertainty  of  the  times,  Dundee  resolved  to  keep  his 
forces  together,  until  he  had  conducted  them  back  into 
Scotland.  With  this  view  he  took  up  his  quarters  at  Wat- 
ford, intending  to  retreat  on  the  ensuing  morning.  Jn  the 
meanwhile,  the  town's-people,  who  did  not  like  the  com- 
pany of  these  northern  soldiers,  raised  a  report  during  the 
course  of  the  night  that  the  Prince  of  Orange  was  coining 
to  attack  them,  hoping,  by  this  false  alarm,  to  frighten 
them  from  the  place  sooner  than  they  intended.  But 
Dundee  was  not  a  person  so  easily  startled.  To  the  great 
alarm  of  the  citizens,  he  caused  his  trumpets  to  sound  to 
arms,  and,  taking  up  a  strong  position  in  front  of  the  town, 
sent  out  to  reconnoitre,  and  learn  the  intentions  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange.  Thus  the  stratagem  of  the  citizens  of 
Watford  only  brought  on  themselves  the  chance  of  a  battle 
in  front  of  their  town,  which  was  most  likely  to  suffer  in 
the  conflict,  be  the  event  what  it  would. 

But  the  Prince  of  Orange  knew  Dundee's  character 
well.  He  had  served  his  early  campaigns  under  that 
Prince,  and  had  merited  his  regard,  not  only  by  his  dili- 
gent discharge  of  his  duty,  but  also  by  rescuing  Williatr 
at  the  battle  of  SenefF  in  1674,  and  remounting  him  or, 
his  own  horse,  when  that  of  the  Prince  was  slain  UIU'P.- 
him.  Dundee  had  left  the  Dutch  service,  on  being  iLs 
appointed  of  a  regiment. 

Knowing,  therefore,  the  courage  and  obstinacy  of  in: 
Scottish  commander,  the  Prince  of  Orange  took  the  step 
of  assuring  the  Viscount  of  Dundee,  that  he  had  not  the 
least  purpose  of  molesting  him,  and  that,  understanding 


110  THE    SCOTTISH     AKMT    JOINS    WILLIAM. 

lie  was  at  Watford,  and  was  keeping  his  men  embodied 
lie  had  to  request  lie  would  remain  there  till  further  orders. 
When  the  news  of  the  King's  return  to  London  was  ru- 
moured, Dundee  went  to  assure  his  old  master  of  his  cca- 
t'.nued  attachment,  and  to  receive  his  orders ;  and  it,  U 
said  he  even  then  offered  to  assemble  the  dispersed  tro ••:•;. -a 
of  the  King,  and  try  the  fate  of  war.  But  James's  spmt 
was  too  much  broken  to  stand  sucli  a  hazard. 

On  James's  final  flight  to  France,  and  the  decision  of 
the  Convention  elevating  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Orange  to  the  throne,  Dundee  would  no  longer  retain  his 
command,  but  retired  to  Scotland,  at  the  head  of  a  body- 
guard of  twenty  or  thirty  horse,  who  would  not  quit  him, 
and  without  whose  protection  he  could  not  perhaps  have 
passed  safely  through  the  southern  and  western  counties, 
where  he  had  exercised  so  many  severities.  The  Scot- 
tish army,  or  what  remained  of  it,  was  put  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  MacKay,  an  officer  attached  to  King 
William,  and  transferred  to  the  service  of  the  newr  mon- 
arch, though  there  were  many  amongst  them  who  cast  a 
lingering  eye  towards  that  of  their  old  master. 

In  the  meantime,  the  revolution  had  been  effected  in 
Scotland,  though  not  with  the  same  unanimity  as  in  Eng- 
land. On  the  contrary,  the  Episcopalians  throughout  the 
kingdom,  in  spite  of  all  the  provocations  which  they  had 
received,  could  not  prevail  upon  themselves  to  join  in  any 
measures  which  should  be  unfavourable  to  James's  interest, 
and  would  probably  have  appeared  in  arms  in  his  cause, 
had  there  been  any  one  present  in  Scotland  to  raise  and 
uphold  the  exiled  Monarch's  banner. 

The  Scottish  prelates,  in  particular,  hastened  to  show, 
that  in  the  extremity  of  King  James's  misfortunes,  thoy 
had  forgotten  their  rupture  with  him,  and  were  returned  to 
the  principles  of  passive  obedience,  by  which  their  church 
was  distinguished.  On  the  3d  November,  the  whole  of 
their  number,  excepting  the  Bishops  of  Argyle  and  Caith- 
ness, joined  in  a  let'er  to  the  King,  professing  their  own 
fixed  and  unshaken  loyalty,  promising  their  utmost  efloris 
to  promote  among  his  subjects  an  mtctntrable  and  steadfast 


F1IGH7    OF    THE    EARL    OF    PERTH.  Hi 

allegiance,  and  praying  that  Heaven  would  give  the  King 
the  hearts  of  his  suhjects  and  the  necks  of  his  enemies. 

But  the  defenceless  state  in  which  King  James's  Scot- 
tish government  was  left,  after  the  march  of  Douglas  and 
Dundee  into  England  at  the  head  of  the  regular  forces, 
rendered  the  good  wishes  of  the  bishops  of  little  service. 
It  soon  began  to  appear  that  the  Scottish  Presbyterians 
were  determined  to  avail  themselves  of  an  opportunity 
for  which  the  chief  amongst  them  had  long  made  prepa- 
rations. The  Earls  of  Glencairn,  Crawford,  Duudonald, 
and  Tarras,  with  several  other  persons  of  consideration, 
encouraged  the  rising  of  the  Presbyterians,  who,  hastily 
assuming  arms,  appeared  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, in  open  opposition  to  the  government. 

These  desultory  forces  might  have  been  put  down  by 
the  militia  ;  but  a  maiueuvre  of  the  Earl  of  Athole,  whose 
connexion  with  the  Earl  of  Derby  had  procured  him  ad- 
mission into  the  secrets  of  the  Revolution,  prevented  the 
adherents  of  King  James  from  having  this  support.  Lord 
Tarbat  concurred  in  the  sentiments  of  Athole,  and  both 
being  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  had  an  opportunity 
of  carrying  their  purpose  into  execution.  When  the  news 
reached  Scotland,  that  the  army  of  King  James  was  dis- 
banded, and  the  King  had  fled,  these  two  noblemen  per- 
suaded the  Chancellor,  Perth,  and  other  Catholics  or  zeal- 
ous Jacobites  in  the  Privy  Council,  that,  as  there  was  now 
no  chance  of  coming  to  a  decision  by  force  of  arms,  it  was 
their  duty  to  disband  the  militia,  as  their  services  could  not 
be  needed,  and  their  maintenance  was  a  burden  to  the 
country. 

The  Earl  of  Perth,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  tim- 
orous man,  was  persuaded  to  acquiesce  in  this  measure ; 
and  no  sooner  had  he  parted  with  the  militia,  his  last 
armed  defence,  than  his  colleagues  made  him  understand, 
that  he  being  a  Papist,  incapacitated  by  law  from  holding 
any  public  office,  they  did  not  think  themselves  in  safety 
to  sit  and  vote  with  him  as  a  member  of  government. 
And,  while  the  protestant  part  of  his  late  obsequious  breth- 
ren seemed  to  shun  him  as  one  infected  with  the  plague, 


112  TUMULT    IN    EDINBURGH. 

llie  rabbit  beat  drums  in  the  streets,  proclaimed  him  trai- 
tor, and  set  a  price  upon  his  head.  His  courage  could 
not  withstand  the  menace,  and  he  escaped  from  the  me- 
tropolis, with  the  purpose  of  flying  beyond  seas.  But 
being  pursued  by  armed  barks,  he  was  taken  and  detain- 
ed a  prisoner  for  more  than  four  years. 

In  the  meantime,  an  act  of  violence  of  a  decided 
character  took  place  in  Edinburgh.  Holyrood  House, 
the  ancient  palace  of  James's  ancestors,  and  his  own  hab- 
itation when  in  Scotland,  had  been  repaired  with  becom- 
ing splendour,  when  he  came  to  the  throne.  But  it  was 
within  its  precincts  that  he  had  established  his  royal 
chapel  for  the  Catholic  service,  and  established  a  semina- 
ry of  Jesuits,  an  institution  which  under  pretext  of  leach- 
ing the  Latin  language,  and  other  branches  of  education 
gratis,  was  undoubtedly  designed  to  carry  on  the  work  of 
making  proselytes.  At  Holyrood  House  a  printing  estab- 
lishment was  erected,  from  which  were  issued  polemical 
tracts  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  similar  litera- 
ry articles.  The  palace  and  its  inmates  were  on  all  these 
accounts  very  obnoxious  to  the  Presbyterian  party,  which 
now  began  to  obtain  the  ascendency. 

The  same  bands,  consisting  01  the  meaner  class  of 
people,  apprentices,  and  others,  whose  appearances  had 
frightened  the  Chancellor  out  of  the  city,  continued  to 
parade  the  streets  with  drums  beating,  until,  confident  in 
their  numbers,  they  took  the  resolution  of  making  an  at- 
tack on  the  palace,  which  was  garrisoned  by  a  company 
of  soldiers,  commanded  by  one  Captain  Wallace. 

As  they  pressed  on  this  officer's  sentinels,  he  at  length 
commanded  his  soldiers  to  fire,  and  some  of  the  insur- 
gents were  killed.  A  general  cry  was  raised  through  the 
city,  that  Wallace  and  his  troopers  were  committing  a 
massacre  of  the  inhabitants;  and  many  of  the  citizens, 
repairing  to  the  Earl  of  Athole  and  his  colleagues,  the 
only  part  of  the  Privy  Council  which  remained,  obtained 
a  warrant  from  them  for  the  surrender  of  the  palace,  and 
an  order  for  the  King's  heralds  to  attend  in  their  official 
naoits  to  intimate  the  same.  The  city  guard  of  Edin- 


EXPULSION    OF    CAPTAIN    WALLACE.  113 

burgh  was  also  commanded  to  be  in  readiness  to  enforce 
the  order  ;  the  trained  bands  were  got  under  arms,  and 
the  Provost  and  Magistrates,  with  a  number  of  persons  of 
condition,  went  to  show  their  good-will  to  the  cause.  Some 
of  these  volunteers  acted  a  little  out  of  character.  Lord 
Mersington,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
lately  promoted  by  James  IL,  at  the  time  when  he  was 
distributing  his  favours  equally  betwixt  Papist  and  Puritan, 
attracted  some  attention  from  his  peculiar  appearance :  he 
was  girt  with  a  buff-belt  about  five  inches  broad,  bore  a 
halbert  in  his  hand,  and  (if  a  Jacobite  eye-witness  speaks 
truth)  was  "as  drunk  as  ale  and  brandy  could  make  him." 
On  the  approach  of  this  motley  army  of  besiegers, 
Wallace,  instead  of  manning  the  battlements  and  towers 
of  the  palace,  drew  up  his  men  imprudently  in  the  open 
court -yard  in  front  of  it.  He  refused  to  yield  up  his 
post,  contending,  that  the  warrant  of  the  Privy  Council 
was  only  signed  by  a  small  number  of  that  body.  Defi- 
ance was  exchanged  on  both  sides,  and  firing  commenced  ; 
on  which  most  of  the  volunteers  got  into  places  of  safety 
leaving  Captain  Wallace  and  the  major  of  the  city  guard 
to  dispute  the  matter  professionally.  It  chanced  that  the 
latter  proved  the  better  soldier,  and  finding  a  back  way 
into  the  palace,  attacked  Wallace  in  the  rear.  The  de- 
fenders were  at  the  same  time  charged  in  front  by  the 
other  assailants,  and  the  palace  was  taken  by  storm.  The 
rabble  behaved  themselves  as  riotously  as  might  have  been 
expected,  breaking,  burning,  and  destroying,  not  only  the 
articles  which  belonged  to  the  Catholic  service,  but  the 
whole  furniture  of  the  chapel ;  and,  finally,  forcing  their 
way  into  the  royal  sepulchres,  and  pulling  about  the  bod- 
ies of  the  deceased  Princes  and  Kings  of  Scotland. 
These  monuments,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  British 
government,  were  not  closed  until  ten  or  twelve  year? 
since,  before  which  time,  the  exhibition  of  the  wretched 
relics  of  mortality  which  had  been  dragged  to  light  on 
this  occasion,  was  a  part  of  the  show  offered  to  strangers 
who  visited  the  palace. 
15* 


114  PLU.1DKRING    OF    CATHOLIC     CHAPELS. 

This  riot,  which  ascertained  the  complete  superiority 
of  the  Presbyterian  party,  took  place  on  the  10th  Decem- 
ber, 1088.  The  houses  of  various  Catholics,  who  then 
resided  chiefly  in  the  Canongate,  were  mobbed,  or  rab- 
bled, as  was  then  the  phrase,  their  persons  insulted,  and 
their  property  destroyed.  But  the  populace  contented 
themselves  with  burning  and  destroying  whatever  they 
considered  as  belonging  to  Papists  and  Popery,  without 
taking  anything  for  their  own  use. 

This  zeal  for  the  Protestant  cause  was  maintained  by 
false  rumours,  that  an  army  of  Irish  Catholics  had  landed 
in  the  west,  and  were  burning,  spoiling,  and  slaying.  It 
was  even  said  they  had  reached  Dumfries.  A  similar 
report  had  produced  a  great  effect  on  the  minds  of  the 
English  during  the  Prince  of  Orange's  advance  to  the 
capital.  In  Scotland  it  was  a  general  signal  for  the  Pres- 
byterians to  get  to  arms ;  and,  being  thus  assembled,  they, 
and  particularly  the  Cameronians,  found  active  occupation 
in  ejecting  from  the  churches  the  clergy  of  the  Episcopa- 
lian persuasion.  To  proceed  in  this  work  with  some 
appearance  of  form,  they,  in  most  cases,  previously  inti- 
mated to  the  Episcopal  curates  that  they  must  either 
leave  their  churches  voluntarily,  or  be  forcibly  ejected 
from  them. 

Now,  since  these  armed  nonconformists  had  been,  to  use 
their  own  language,  for  nearly  twenty  years  "  proscribed, 
forfeited,  miserably  oppressed,  given  up  as  sheep  to  the 
slaughter,  intercomrnuned,  and  interdicted  of  harbour  or 
supply,  comfort  or  communion,  hunted  and  slain  in  the 
fields,  in  cities  imprisoned,  tortured,  executed  to  the  death, 
or  banished  and  sold  as  slaves ;"  and,  as  many  of  them 
avowed  the  same  wild  principles  which  were  acted  upon  by 
the  murderers  of  Archbishop  Sharpe,  it  might  have  been 
expected  that  a  bloody  retaliation  would  take  place  as  soon 
as  they  had  the  power  in  their  own  hands.  Yet  it  must 
be  owned  that  these  stern  Cameronians  showed  no  degree 
of  positive  cruelty.  They  expelled  the  obnoxious  cu- 
rates with  marks  of  riotous  triumph,  tore  their  gowns,  and 
compelled  them  sometimes  to  march  in  a  mock  procession 


STATE    OF    PARTIES.  J15 

to  the  boundary  of  their  parish  ;  they  plundered  the  pri- 
vate chapels  of  Catholics,  ana  destroyed  whatever  they 
found  belonging  to  their  religion ;  but  they  evinced  no 
desire  of  personal  vengeance ;  nor  have  I  found  that  any 
of  the  clergy  who  were  expelled  in  this  memorable  month 
of  December,  1688,  were  either  killed  or  wounded  in 
cold  blood. 

These  tumults  would  have  extended  to  Edinburgh ; 
but  the  College  of  Justice,  under  which  title  all  the  dif- 
ferent law  bodies  of  the  capital  are  comprehended,  as- 
sumed arms  for  maintaining  the  public  peace,  and  resist- 
ing an  expected  invasion  of  the  city  by  the  Cameronians, 
who  threatened,  in  this  hour  of  triumph,  a  descent  on  the 
metropolis,  and  a  second  Whigarnores'  Raid.  This  spe- 
cies of  civic  guard  effectually  checked  their  advance, 
until,  not  being  supposed  favourable  to  the  Prince  of  Or- 
ange, it  was  disbanded  by  proclamation  when  he  assumed 
the  management  of  public  affairs. 

Hitherto  Scotland  may  be  said  to  have  been  without 
a  government;  and,  indeed,  now  that  all  prospect  of  war 
seemed  at  an  end,  men  of  all  parties  posted  up  to  London, 
as  the  place  where  the  fate  of  the  kingdom  must  be  finally 
settled.  The  Prince  of  Orange  recommended  the  same 
measure  which  had  been  found  efficient  in  England ;  and 
a  convention  of  the  Scottish  estates  was  summoned  to 
meet  in  March,  1689.  The  interval  was  spent  by  both 
parties  in  preparing  for  a  contest. 

The  Episcopal  party  continued  devoted  to  the  late 
King.  They  possessed  a  superiority  among  the  nobility, 
providing  the  Bishops  should  be  permitted  to  retain  their 
seats  in  the  Convention.  But  amongst  the  members  for 
counties,  and  especially  amongst  the  representatives  of 
burghs,  the  great  •ngjority  was  on  the  side  of  the  Whigs, 
or  Williamites,  as  the  friends  of  the  Prince  of  Orange  be- 
gan to  be  called. 

If  actual  force  were  to  be  resorted  to,  the  Jacobites 
relied  on  the  faith  of  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  who  was  gov- 
ernor of  the  castle  of  Edinburgh,  on -the  attachment  of 
the  Highland  clans,  and  the  feudal  influence  of  the  nobles 


116  MEETING    OF    THE    CONVENTION. 

and  gen  ry  of  the  north.  The  Whigs  might  reckon  on 
the  lull  force  of  the  five  western  shires,  besides  a  large 
proportion  of  the  south  of  Scotland.  The  same  party 
had  on  their  side  the  talents  and  abilities  of  DalrympJe, 
Fletcher,  and  other  men  of  strong  political  genius,  far 
superior  to  any  that  was  possessed  by  the  Tories.  But 
if  the  parties  should  come  to  an  open  rupture,  the  Whigs 
had  no  soldier  of  reputation  to  oppose  to  the  formidable 
talents  of  Dundee. 

The  exiled  King  having  directed  his  adherents  to  at- 
tend the  Convention,  and,  if  possible,  secure  a  majority 
there,  Dundee  appeared  on  the  occasion  with  a  train  of 
sixty  horse,  who  had  most  of  them  served  under  him  on 
former  occasions.  The  principal  Whigs,  on  their  part, 
secretly  brought  into  town  the  armed  Cameronians, 
whom  they  concealed  in  garrets  and  cellars,  till  the  mo- 
ment should  come  for  their  being  summoned  to  appear  in 
arms.  These  preparations  for  violence  show  how  inferior 
in  civil  polity  Scotland  must  have  been  to  England,  since 
it  seemed  that  the  great  national  measures,  which  were 
debated  with  calmness,  and  adopted  with  deliberation  in 
the  Convention  of  England,  were,  in  that  of  North  Britain, 
to  be  decided  by  an  appeal  to  the  sword. 

Yet  the  Convention  assembled  peaceably,  though  under 
ominous  circumstances.  The  town  was  filled  with  two 
factions  of  armed  men,  lately  distinguished  as  the  perse- 
cuting and  the  oppressed  parties,  and  burning  with  hatred 
against  each  other.  The  guns  of  the  Castle,  from  the 
lofty  rock  on  which  it  is  situated,  lay  loaded  and  prepared 
to  throw  their  thunders  on  the  city ;  and  under  these 
alarming  circumstances,  the  Peers  and  Commons  of  Scot- 
land were  to  consider  and  decide  upon  the  fate  of  her 
Cro\\n.  Each  party  had  the  deepest  motives  for  exertion. 

The  Cavaliers,  or  Jacobites,  chiefly  belonged  by  birth 
to  the  aristocracy,  forgot  James's  errors  in  his  misfortunes, 
or  indulgently  ascribed  them  to  a  few  bigoted  priests  and 
se  fish  counsellors,  by  whom,  they  were  compelled  to  ad- 
mit, the  royal  ear  had  been  too  exclusively  possessed. 
They  saw,  in  the  now  aged  monarch,  the  son  of  the  ven- 


VIEWS    OF    THE    JACOBITES    AND    WHIGS.  117 

crated  martyr,  Charles  I.,  whose  memory  was  so  dear  to 
them,  and  the  descendant  of  the  hundred  princes  who  had 
occupied  the  Scottish  throne,  according  to  popular  belief, 
for  a  thousand  years,  and  under  whom  their  ancestors  had 
acquired  their  fortunes,  their  titles,  and  their  fame.  James 
himself,  whatever  were  the  political  errors  of  his  reign, 
had  been  able  to  attach  to  himself  individually  many  both 
of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  Scotland,  who  regretted  liim 
as  a  friend  as  well  as  a  sovereign,  and  recollected  the 
familiarity  with  which  he  could  temper  his  stately  cour- 
tesy, and  the  favours  which  many  had  personally  received 
from  him.  The  compassion  due  to  fallen  majesty  was  in 
this  case  enhanced,  when  it  was  considered  that  James 
was  to  be  uncrowned,  in  order  that  the  Prince  and  Prin- 
cess of  Orange,  his  son-in-law  and  daughter,  might  be 
raised  to  the  throne  in  his  stead,  a  measure  too  contrary 
to  the  ordinary  feelings  of  nature  not.  to  create  some  dis- 
gust. Besides,  the  Cavaliers  generally  were  attached  to 
the  Episcopalian  form  of  worship,  and  to  the  constitution 
of  a  church,  which,  while  it  supported  with  credit  the 
dignity  of  the  sacred  order,  affected  not  the  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  private  families,  for  which  they  censured 
the  Presbyterians.  Above  all,  the  Jacobites  felt  that  they 
themselves  must  sink  in  power  and  influence  with  the  de- 
thronement of  King  James,  and  must  remain  a  humbled 
and  inferior  party  in  the  kingdom  which  they  lately  gov- 
erned, hated  for  what  had  passed,  and  suspected  in  regard 
to  the  future. 

The  Whigs,  with  warmer  hopes  of  success,  had  even 
more  urgent  motives  for  political  union  and  exertion 
They  reckoned  up  the  melancholy  roll  of  James's  crimes 
and  errors,  and  ridiculed  the  idea,  that  he  who  had  already 
suffered  so  much  both  in  his  youth  and  middle  age,  could 
ever  become  wiser  by  misfortune.  Bigotry  and  an  ex 
travagant  and  inveterate  love  of  power,  they  alleged,  were 
propensities  which  increased  with  age  ;  and  his  religion, 
they  contended,  while  it  would  readily  permit  him  to  enter 
into  any  engagements  which  an  emergency  might  require, 
ivould  with  equal  ease  dispense  with  his  keeping  them. 


118  ELECTION  OF  PRESIDENT. 

and  even  impute  it  as  a  merit  th.it  he  observed  no  faith 
with  heretics.  The  present  crisis,  they  justly  argued, 
afforded  a  happy  occasion  to  put  an  end  to  that  course  of 
open  encroachment  upon  their  liberty  and  property,  of 
which  the  Scottish  nation  had  so  long  had  to  complain  ; 
and  it  would  be  worse  than  folly  to  sacrifice  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  people  to  the  veneration  attached  to  an 
ancient  line  of  princes,  when  their  representative  had  for- 
gotten the  tenure  by  which  he  held  the  throne  of  his 
fathers.  The  form  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  while  it 
possessed  a  vital  power  over  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  the  worshippers,  was  also  of  a  character  peculiarly 
favourable  to  freedom,  and  suitable  to  a  poor  country  like 
that  of  Scotland,  ill  able  to  maintain  bishops  and  dignita- 
ries with  becoming  splendour.  A  great  part  of  the  nation 
had  shown  themselves  attached  to  it,  and  disposed  to  sub- 
mil  to  the  greatest  hardships,  and  \o  death  itself,  rathei 
than  conform  to  the  Episcopalian  mode  of  worship  ;  and 
it  was  fitting  they  should  have  permission  to  worship  God 
in  the  way  their  consciences  recommended.  The  char- 
acter of  William  afforded  the  most  brilliant  arguments  to 
his  partisans  in  the  Convention.  He  had  been  from  his 
youth  upward  distinguished  as  the  champion  of  public 
freedom,  his  zeal  for  which  exceeded  even  his  ambition. 

He  was  qualified  by  the  doctrines  of  toleration,  which 
lie  had  deeply  imbibed,  to  cure  the  wounds  of  nations  dis 
iracted  by  civil  faction,  and  his  regard  for  truth  and  honour 
defied  every  temptation  to  extend  his  power,  which  the 
unsettled  circumstances  of  the  British  kingdoms  might 
present  to  an  ambitious  prince. 

Distracted  by  these  various  considerations,  the  Scottish 
Convention  met.  The  first  contest  was  for  the  nomination 
of  a  president,  in  which  it  is  remarkable  that  both  the  con- 
tending parties  made  choice  of  candidates,  in  whom  nei- 
ther could  repose  trust  as  faithful  partisans.  The  Marquis 
of  Athole  was  proposed  by  the  Jacobites,  to  whose  side 
he  now  inclined,  after  having  been,  as  I  have  shown  you, 
the  principal  actor  in  displacing  James's  Scottish  admin- 
istration, and  chasing  from  Edinburgh  that  King's  Chan 


NEGOTIATIONS    WITH    THF.    DUKE    OF    GORDON.      119 

cellor,  the  Earl  of  Perth.  The  Whigs,  on  the  other  hand, 
equally  at  a  loss  to  find  an  unexceptionable  candidate,  set 
up  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  although  his  future  conduct  was 
so  undecided  and  dubious  as  to  make  them  more  than 
once  repent  of  their  choice. 

The  Duke  of  Hamilton  attained  the  presidency  by  a 
majority  of  fifteen,  which,  though  not  a  very  predominat- 
ing one,  was  sufficient  to  ascertain  the  superiority  of  (lie 
Whigs,  who,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  were  immediately 
joined  by  all  those  whom  timidity  or  selfish  consideration 
had  kept  aloof,  until  they  should  discover  which  was  ibe 
safest,  and  likely  to  be  the  winning  side.  The  majorities 
of  the  Whigs  increased  therefore  upon  every  question, 
while  the  Jacobite  party  saw  no  remedy  but  in  some  des- 
perate and  violent  course.  The  readiest  which  occurred 
was  to  endeavour  to  induce  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  governor 
of  the  castle,  to  fire  upon  the  town,  and  to  expel  the  Con- 
vention, in  which  their  enemies  were  all-powerful.  The 
Convention,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a  great  majority,  sum- 
moned the  Duke  to  surrender  the  place,  under  the  pains 
of  high  treason. 

The  position  of  the  Duke  was  difficult.  The  castle 
was  strong,  but  it  was  imperfectly  supplied  with  provisions ; 
the  garrison  was  insufficient,  and  many  among  them  of 
doubtful  fidelity  ;  and  as  every  other  place  of  strength 
throughout  the  kingdom  had  been  surrendered,  to  refuse 
compliance  might  be  to  draw  upon  himself  the  unmitigated 
vengeance  of  the  prevailing  party.  The  Duke  was  there- 
fore uncertain  how  to  decide,  when  the  Earls  of  Lothian 
and  Tweeddale  came  to  demand  a  surrender  in  the  name 
of  the  Convention  ;  and  he  at  first  offered  to  comply,  on 
obtaining  indemnity  for  himself  and  his  friends.  But  the 
Viscount  of  Dundee,  getting  access  to  the  castle  while  the 
treaty  was  in  dependence,  succeeded  in  inspiring  the  Duke 
with  a  share  of  his  own  resolution  ;  so  that  when  the  Com- 
missioners desired  to  know  the  friends  for  whom  he  de- 
manded immunity,  he  answered  by  delivering  to  thjm  a 
list  of  all  the  clans  in  the  Highlands  ;  which  being  inter- 
preted as  done  in  scorn,  the  two  Earls  returned  so  indig. 


120  INTERVIEW    OF    DUNDEE 

nant,  that  they  scarce  could  find  words  to  give  an  account 
of  their  errand  to  the  Convention. 

Soon  after,  the  Duke  of  Gordon  was  solemnly  sum- 
moned by  two  heralds,  in  their  ceremonial  habits,  to  sur- 
render the  place  ;  and  they  published  a  proclamation, 
prohibiting  any  one  to  converse  with  or  assist  him,  should 
he  continue  contumacious.  The  Duke  desired  them  to 
inform  the  Convention,  that  he  held  his  command  by  war- 
rant from  their  common  master  ;  and,  giving  them  some 
money  to  drink  King  James's  health,  he  observed,  that 
when  they  came  to  declare  loyal  subjects  traitors,  with  the 
King's  coats  on  their  backs,  they  ought  in  decency  to  turn 
them. 

But  though  Dundee  had  been  able  to  persuade  the 
Duke  to  stand  a  siege  in  the  castle,  he  could  not  prevail 
upon  him  to  fire  on  the  town  ;  an  odious  severity,  which 
would  certainly  have  brought  general  hatred  upon  him, 
without,  perhaps,  having  the  desired  effect  of  dislodging 
the  Convention.  This  scheme  having  failed,  the  Jacobites 
resolved  upon  another,  which  was  to  break  up  with  all 
their  party,  and  hold  another  and  rival  Convention  at  Stir- 
ling. For  this  purpose  it  was  proposed  that  the  Earl  of 
Mar,  hereditary  keeper  of  Stirling  Castle,  should  join 
them,  in  order  that  they  might  have  the  protection  of  the 
fortress,  and  that  Athole  should  assist  them  with  a  body 
of  his  Highlanders.  These  noblemen  entered  into  the 
plan  ;  but  when  it  came  to  the  point  of  execution,  the 
courage  of  both  seems  to  have  given  way,  and  the  design 
was  postponed. 

Whilst  affairs  were  in  this  state,  Dundee,  provoked  alike 
at  the  vacillation  of  his  friends,  and  the  triumphs  of  his 
enemies,  resolved  no  longer  to  remain  inactive.  He  sud- 
denly appeared  before  the  Convention,  and  complained  of 
a  plot  laid  to  assassinate  himself  and  Sir  Geor£e  Mac- 
Kenzie,  the  late  King's  advocate  ;  a  charge  which  was 
very  probable,  since  the  town  was  now  filled  with  armed 
i/arneronians,  who  had  smarted  so  severely  under  the 
judicial  prosecutions  of  the  lawyer,  and  the  military  vio- 
lence of  the  soldier.  Dundee  demanded  that  ail  stranirera 


WITH    THE    DUKE    OF    GORDON.  I  2  i 

should  be  removed  from  the  town,  and  when  it  was  an- 
swered, that  this  could  not  he  done  without  placing  the 
Convention  at  the  mercy  of  the  Popish  Duke  of  Gordon 
and  his  garrison,  he  left  the  assembly  in  indignation,  and, 
returning  to  his  lodgings,  instantly  took  arms  and  mounted 
his  horse,  attended  by  fifty  or  sixty  armed  followers.  The 
city  was  alarmed  at  the  appearance  of  this  unexpected 
cavalcade,  so  formidable  from  the  active  and  resolute  char- 
acter of  its  leader  ;  and  the  Convention,  feeling,  or  pre- 
tending, personal  alarm,  ordered  the  gates  of  their  hall  to 
be  locked,  and  the  keys  to  be  laid  upon  the  table.  In  the 
meantime  the  drums  beat  to  arms,  and  the  bands  of  \vest- 
landmen,  who  had  been  hitherto  concealed  in  garrets,  and 
similar  lurking-holes,  appeared  in  the  streets  with  their 
arms  prepared,  and  exhibiting,  in  their  gestures,  language, 
and  looks,  the  stern  hopes  of  the  revenge  which  they  had 
long  panted  for. 

While  these  things  were  passing,  Dundee,  in  full  view 
of  friends  and  enemies,  rode  at  leisure  out  of  the  city,  by 
the  lane  called  Leith  Wynd,  and  proceeded  along  the 
northern  ba.iK  of  the  North  Loch,  where  the  New  Town 
of  Edinburgh  is  now  situated.  From  thence,  turning 
under  the  western  side  of  the  castle,  he  summoned  the 
Duke  of  Gordon  to  a  conference  at  the  foot  of  the  walls, 
and  for  that  purpose  scrambled  up  the  precipitous  bank 
and  rock  on  which  the  fortress  is  situated.  So  far  as  is 
known,  Dundee's  advice  to  the  Duke  was,  to  maintain  the 
oa?tle  at  all  risks,  promising  him  speedy  relief. 

The  people  of  Edinburgh,  who  witnessed  this  extraor- 
dinary interview,  concluded  that  the  castle  was  about  to 
fire  upon  the  city  ;  while  the  Jacobite  members  of  the 
Convention  on  their  part,  unarmed  and  enclosed  among 
their  political  enemies,  were  afraid  of  being  massacred 
by  the  armed  Whigs.  The  Convention,  when  their 
alarm  subsided,  sent  Major  Buntine  with  a  fifty  to  pursue 
Dundee  and  make  him  prisoner.  That  offic  er  soon  over- 
took the  Viscount,  and  announced  his  commission  ;  to 
which  Dundee  only  deigned  to  answer,  that  if  he  dared 

m 


1-2  SIEGE    OF    EDINBURGH    CASTLE. 

attempt  to  execute  such  a  purpose,  he  would  send  him 
buck  to  the  Convention  in  a  pair  of  blankets.-  Buntine 
took  the  hint,  and  suffering  the  dreaded  commander  and 
his  party  to  pass  unmolested,  returned  in  peace  to  the  cily. 
Dundee  marched  towards  Stirling,  and  in  consequence  of 
his  departure,  the  other  friends  of  King  James  left  Edin- 
burgh, and  hastened  to  their  own  homes. 

So  soon  as  this  extraordinary  scene  had  passed  over 
the  Convention,  now  relieved  from  the  presence  of  the 
Jacobite  members,  resolved  upon  levying  troops  to  defend 
themse.ves,  and  to  reduce  the  castle.  The  Catneronians 
were  the  readiest  force  of  whose  principles  they  could  be 
assured,  and  it  was  proposed  to  them  to  raise  a  regiment 
of  two  battalions,  under  the  Earl  of  Angus,  eldest  son  oi 
the  Marquis  of  Douglas,  a  nobleman  of  military  talents, 
as  Colonel,  and  William  Cleland  as  Lieutenant-Colonel. 
This  last  had  been  one  of  the  commanders  at  Drumclog, 
and,  besides  being  a  brave  gentleman,  was  a  poet,  though 
an  indifferent  one,  and  more  a  man  of  the  world  than  most 
of  the  sect  to  which  he  belonged. 

Some  of  the  more  rigid  Covenanters  were  of  opin'on, 
that  those  of  their  principles  had  no  freedom  (to  use  the'r 
own  phraseology)  to  join  together  for  the  defence  of  a 
Convention,  in  which  so  many  persons  had  both  places 
and  power,  who  had  been  deeply  engaged  in  the  violent 
measures  of  the  last  reign  ;  and  they  doubted  this  the 
more,  as  no  steps  had  been  taken  to  resume  the  obligations 
of  the  Covenant.  But  the  singular  and  most  unexpected 
train  of  events,  which  had  occasioned  their  being  called 
to  arms  to  defend  a  city,  where  they  had  never  before  been 
seen  openly  save  when  dragged  to  execution,  seemed  so 
directly  the  operation  of  Providence  in  their  favour,  that, 
giving  way  for  once  to  the  dictates  of  common  sense,  the 
Cameronians  agreed  to  consider  the  military  association 
now  proposed  as  a  necessary  and  prudential  measure, 
protesting  only  that  the  intended  regiment  should  not  be 
employed  either  under  or  along  with  such  officers  as  had 
given  proofs  of  attachment  to  Popery,  Prelacy,  or  Malig- 
nancy. They  a'so  stipulated  for  regular  opportunities  of 


PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    CONVENTION.  123 

public  worship,  and  for  strict  punishment  of  unchristian 
conversation,  swearing,  and  profligacy  of  every  sort ;  and 
their  discipline  having  been  arranged  as  much  to  their  mind 
as  possible,  eighteen  hundred  men  were  raised,  and,  im- 
mediately marching  to  Edinburgh,  assumed  the  duty  of 
defending  the  Convention,  and  blockading  the  garrison  in 
the  castle. 

They  were  soon,  however,  relieved  by  troops  more 
competent  to  such  a  task,  being  a  part  of  the  regular  army 
sent  down  to  Scotland  by  King  William,  in  order  to  give 
his  party  the  decided  superiority  in  that  kingdom.  Bat- 
teries were  raised  against  the  castle,  and  trenches  opened. 
The  Duke  of  Gordon  made  an  honourable  defence,  avoid- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  to  do  any  damage  to  the  town,  and 
confining  his  fire  to  returning  that  of  the  batteries,  by 
which  he  was  annoyed.  But  the  smallness  of  his  garrison, 
the  scarcity  of  provisions,  the  want  t)f  surgical  assistance 
and  medicines  for  the  wounded,  above  all,  the  frequency 
of  desertion,  induced  the  Duke  finally  to  surrender  upon 
honourable  terms,  and  in  June  he  evacuated  the  fortress. 

The  Convention,  in  the  meantime,  almost  entirely  freed 
from  opposition  within  their  own  assembly,  proceeded  to 
determine  the  great  national  question  arising  out  of  the 
change  of  government.  Two  letters  being  presented  to 
them,  one  from  King  James,  the  other  on  the  part  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  they  opened  and  read  the-  letter  with 
much  reverence,  while  they  passed  over  with  little  notice 
that  of  his  father-in-law,  intimating  by  this  that  they  no 
longer  regarded  him  as  a  sovereign. 

This  was  made  still  more  manifest  by  their  vote  re- 
specting the  state  of  the  nation,  which  was  much  more 
decisive  than  that  of  the  English  Convention.  The  Scots 
Whigs  had  no  Tories  to  consult  with,  and  were  of  course 
at  no  trouble  in  choosing  between  the  terms  of  abdication 
or  forfeiture.  They  openly  declared  that  James  had  as- 
sumed the  throne  without  taking  the  oaths  appointed  by 
law  ;  that  he  had  proceeded  to  innovate  upon  the  consti- 
tution of  the  kingdom,  with  the  purpose  of  converting  a 


124  SETTLEMENT    OF    THE    CROWN 

limited  monarchy  to  a  despotic  authority  ;  they  added, 
that  he  had  employed  the  power  thus  illegally  assumed, 
for  violating  the  laws  and  liberties,  and  altering  the  religion 
of  Scotland  ;  and  in  doing  so,  had  FORFEITED  his  right 
to  the  Crown,  and  the  throne  had  become  vacant. 

The  forfeiture,  in  strict  law,  would  have  extended  to 
all  James's  immediate  issue,  as  in  the  case  of  treason  in  a 
subject  ;  but  as  this  would  have  injured  the  right  of  the 
Princess  of  Orange,  the  effects  of  the  declaration  were 
limited  to  King  James's  infant  son,  and  to  his  future  chil- 
dren. In  imitation  of  England,  the  crown  of  Scotland 
was  settled  upon  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange,  and 
the  survivor  of  them  ;  after  whose  decease,  and  failing 
heirs  of  their  body,  the  Princess  Anne  and  her  heirs  were 
called  to  the  succession. 

When  the  crown  was  thus  settled,  the  Convention  en- 
tered into  a  long  declaration,  called  the  Claim  of  Rights, 
by  which  the  dispensing  powers  were  pronounced  illegal ; 
the  various  modes  of  oppression  practised  during  the  last 
two  reigns  were  censured  as  offences  against  liberty,  and 
Prelacy  was  pronounced  an  insupportable  grievance. 

These  resolutions  being -approved  of  by  the  new  sov- 
ereigns, they  began  to  assume  the  regal  power,  and  fixed 
an  administration.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton  was  named 
High  Commissioner,  in  reward  of  his  services  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Convention  ;  Lord  Melville  was  made  Secre- 
tary of  State,  and  the  Earl  of  Crawford  President  of  the 
Council.  Some  offices  were  put  into  commission,  to  serve 
as  objects  of  ambition  to  those  great  men  who  were  yet 
unprovided  for  ;  others  were  filled  up  by  such  as  had 
given  proofs  of  attachment  to  the  Revolution.  In  general, 
the  choice  of  the  ministry  was  approved  of;  but  the  King 
and  his  advisers  were  censured  for  bestowing  too  much 
confidence  on  Dalrymple,  lately  created  Lord  Stair,  and 
Sir  John  Dalrymple,  his  son,  called  Master  of  Stair.  A 
vacancy  occurred  for  the  promotion  of  the  Earl  of  Stair 
in  a  singular  manner. 

Sir  George  Lockhart,  an  excellent  lawyer,  who  had 
been  crown  counsel  in  Cromwell's  time,  was.  at  the  per 


MURDER    OF    SIR    GEOKGE    LOCKHART.  125 

•)f  the  Revolution,  President  of  the  Court  of  Session  or 
first  judge  in  civil  affairs.  He  had  agreed  to  act  as  an 
arbiter  in  some  disputes  v-'hich  occurred  between  a  gen- 
tleman named  Chiesley,  of  Dairy,  and  his  wife.  The 
President,  in  deciding  this  rr. alter,  had  assigned  a  larger 
provision  10  Mrs.  Chiesley  than,  in  her  husband's  opinion, 
\\aa  just  or  necessary  ;  and  Dairy,  a  man  headlong  in 
his  passions,  was  desperately  offended,  and  publicly 
threatened  the  President's  life.  He  was  cautioned  by 
a  friend  to  forbear  such  imprudent  language,  and  to  dread 
the  just  vengeance  of  Heaven.  "  I  have  much  to  reckon 
foi  with  Heaven,"  said  the  desperate  man,  "  and  we  will 
reckon  for  this  amongst  the  rest."  In  pursuance  of  his 
dreadful  threat,  Chiesley,  armed  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
sassination, followed  his  victim  to  the  Greyfriars'  church, 
in  which  Sir  George  usually  heard  service  ;  but  feeling 
some  reluctance  to  do  the  deed  within  the  sacred  walls, 
he  dogged  him  home,  till  he  turned  into  the  entry  to  his 
own  house,  in  what  is  still  called  the  President's  Close. 
Here  Chiesley  shot  the  Judge  dead  ;  and,  disdaining  to 
save  his  life  by  flight,  he  calmly  walked  about  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  place  till  he  was  apprehended.  He  was 
afterwards  tried  and  executed. 

The  office  of  the  murdered  President  (a  most  import- 
ant one)  was  conferred  upon  Lord  Stair,  and  that  of  King's 
Advocate,  equivalent  to  the  situation  of  Attorney  General, 
was  given  to  his  son,  Sir  John  Dalrymple,  who  was  after- 
wards associated  with  Lord  Melville  in  the  still  more  im- 
portant situation  of  Secretary  of  State.  Both  father  and 
son  were  men  of  high  talent,  but  of  doubtful  integrity, 
and  odious  to  the  Presbyterians  for  compliances  with  the 
late  government. 

Besides  his  immediate  and  official  counsellors,  Kins: 
William  gave,  in  private,  much  of  his  confidence  to  » 
clergyman  named  Carstairs,  who  v/as  one  of  his  chaplains 
This  gentleman  had  given  strong  proof  of  his  fidelity  and 
fortitude  ;  for,  being  arrested  in  Charles  IPs  time,  on  ac- 
count of  his  connexion  with  the  conspiracy  called  Jervis 


1^0  ANECDOTE    OF    KING    WILLIAM. 

wood's  Plot,  he  underwent  the  cruel  torture  of  thun  bikins. 
which,  as  I  before  told  you,  were  screws,  that  almost 
crushed  the  thumbs  to  pieces.  After  the  success  of  the 
Revolution,  the  Magistrates  of  Edinburgh  complimented 
Carstairs,  then  a  man  of  importance,  with  a  present  of  the 
instrument  of  torture  by  which  he  had  suffered.  The 
King,  it  is  said,  heard  of  this,  and  desired  to  see  the  thum- 
biidns.  They  were  produced.  He  placed  his  thumbs  in 
the  engine,  and  desired  Carstairs  to  turn  the  screw.  "  I 
should  wish  to  judge  of  your  fortitude,"  said  the  King, 
"  by  experiencing  the  pain  which  you  endured."  Car- 
stairs  obeyed,  but  turned  the  screws  with  a  polite  degree 
of  attention  not  to  injure  the  royal  thumbs.  "  This  is 
unpleasant,"  said  the  King,  "  yet  it  might  be  endured. 
But  you  are  trifling  with  me.  Turn  the  engine  so  that  I 
may  really  feel  a  share  of  the  pain  inflicted  on  you." 
Carstairs,  on  this  reiterated  command,  and  jealous  of  his 
own  reputation,  turned  the  screws  so  sharply,  that  Willaim 
cried  for  mere)7,  and  owned  he  must  have  confessed  any 
thing,  true  or  false,  rather  than  have  endured  the  pain  an 
instant  longer.  This  gentleman  became  a  particular  con- 
fidant of  the  King,  and  more  trusted  than  many  who  filled 
high  and  ostensible  situations  in  the  state.  He  was  gen- 
erally allowed  to  be  a  man  of  sagacity  and  political  talent ; 
but  his  countrymen  accused  him  of  duplicity  and  dissim- 
ulation ;  and  from  that  character  he  was  generally  distin- 
guished by  the  nickname  of  Cardinal  Carsiairs. 

But  while  King  William  was  thus  preparing  the  mode 
by  which  he  was  to  govern  Scotland,  an  insurrection  took 
place,  by  means  of  which  the  sceptre  of  that  kingdom  was 
well  nigh  wrested  from  his  gripe.  This  was  by  the  ex- 
ertions of  the  Viscount  Dundee,  one  of  those  extraordinary 
persons,  by  whose  energies  great  nationa  revolutions  are 
sometimes  wrought  with  the  assistance  of  very  small 
m^ans. 


SUCCESSES    OF    JAMES    IN    IRELAND.  121* 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

King  James's  Successes  in  Ireland — Preparations  of  i\t 
Viscount  of  Dundee  for  a  Rising  in  favour  of  James 
in  Scotland — Feud  between  MacDonald  of  Kcppoch 
and  Macintosh  ofJ\'Ioy — Advance  of  General  Mac  Kay 
to  the  North  against  Dundee — Movements  of  the  two 
Armies — Battle  of  Killiecrankie,  and  Death  of  Dun- 
dee. 

WHEN  the  Viscount  of  Dundee  retired,  as  I  told  you, 
from  the  city  of  Edinburgh,  the  Convention,  founding 
upon  the  intercourse  which  he  had  held,  contrary  to  their 
order,  with  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  an  intercoinmuned  Cath- 
olic, sent  him  a  summons  to  appear  hefore  them,  and  an- 
swer to  an  accusation  to  that  effect.  But  Dundee  excused 
himself  on  account  of  his  lady's  dangerous  illness,  and 
his  own  danger  from  the  Cameronians. 

In  the  meantime  King  James,  with  forces  furnished  him 
b}r  the  French  king,  had  arrived  in  Ireland,  and,  welcomed 
by  the  numerous  Catholics,  had  almost  made  himself 
master  of  that  fine  kingdom,  excepting  only  the  province 
of  Ulster,  where  the  Protestants,  of  English  and  Scottish 
descent,  offered  a  gallant  and  desperate  resistance.  But 
in  spite  of  such  partial  opposition  as  the  north  of  Ireland 
could  make,  James  felt  so  confident,  that,  by  his  Secretary 
Mehort.  he  wrote  letters  to  the  Viscount  of  Dundee,  and 
to  the  Earl  of  Balcarras,  Dundee's  intimate  friend,  and  a 
steady  adherent  of  the  exiled  monarch,  encouraging  them 
to  gather  together  his  faithful  subjects,  and  make  a  stand 
for  his  interest,  and  promising  them  the  support  of  a  con- 
siderable body  of  forces  from  Ireland,  with  a  supply  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  So  high  were  the  hopes  enter- 
tained by  Lord  Melfort,  that,  in  letters  addressed  to  some 
of  his  friends,  he  expressed,  in  the  most  imprudent  man- 
ner, his  purpose  of  improving  to  the  uttermost  the  tnumul' 


1.28  IMHM  LAU1TY    OF    DUNDEE. 

ivhich  he  did  not  doubt  to  obtain.  "  We  dea.t  too  leni- 
ently vvitb  our  enemies,"  he  said,  "  when  we  were  in 
power,  and  possessed  means  of  crushing  them.  But  now, 
when  they  shall  be  conquered  by  us,  and  subjected  once 
more  to  our  authority,  we  will  reduce  them  to  hewers  of 
wood,  and  drawers  of  water." 

These  letters  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Convention, 
excited  the  utmost  indignation.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton 
and  others,  who  conceived  themselves  particularly  aimed 
at,  became  more  decided  than  ever  to  support  King  Wil- 
liam's government,  since  they  had  no  mercy  to  expect  from 
King  James  and  his  vindictive  counsellors.  A  military 
force  was  despatched  to  arrest  Balcarras  and  Dundee. 
They  succeeded  in  seizing  the  first  of  these  noblemen  ; 
but  Dundee  being  surrounded  by  a  strong  body-guard, 
and  residing  in  a  country  where  many  of  the  gentlemen 
were  Jacobites,  the  party  sent  to  arrest  him  were  afraid 
to  attempt  the  execution  of  their  commission.  He  re- 
mained, therefore,  at  his  own  castle  of  Dudhope,  near 
Dundee,  where  he  had  an  opportunity  of  corresponding 
with  the  Highland  chiefs,  and  with  the  northern  gentle- 
men, who  were  generally  disposed  to  Episcopacy,  and 
favourable  to  the  cause  of  King  James. 

Of  the  same  name  with  the  great  Marquis  of  Montrose, 
boasting  the  same  devoted  loyalty,  and  a  character  as 
enterprising,  with  judgment  superior  to  that  of  his  illustri- 
ous prototype,  Dundee  is  said  to  have  replied  to  those  who, 
on  the  day  of  his  memorable  retreat,  asked  him  whither 
he  went, — "  That  he  was  going  wherever  the  spirit  of 
Montrose  should  conduct  him."  His  whole  mind  was 
now  bent  upon  realizing  this  chivalrous  boast.  His  habits 
were  naturally  prudent  and  economical ;  but  while  others 
kept  their  wealth  as  far  as  possible  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
revolutionary  storm,  Dundee  liberally  expended,  for  the 
vau.«e  of  his  old  master,  the  treasures  which  he  had 
amassed  in  his  service.  His  arguments,  his  largesses,  the 
high  influence  of  his  character  among  the  Highland  chiefs, 
whose  admiration  of  Ian  Dhu  Cean,  or  Black  John  the 
Wurrior,  was  no  way  diminished  by  the  merciless  exploit 


FETI)     UETWEEN    MOY     AND    KKPPOCII.  129 

which  had  procured  him  in  the  Low  country  the  name  ol 
the  Bloody  Claverse,  in,, ted  with  their  own  predilection 
>n  favour  of  James,  and  their  habitual  love  of  war,  to  dis- 
pose them  to  a  general  insurrection.  Some  of  the  clans 
however,  had,  asmsual,  existing  feuds  amongst  themselves 
which  Dundee  was  ohliged  to  assist  in  composing,  before 
he  could  unite  them  all  in  the  cause  of  the  dethroned 
monarch. 

I  will  give  you  an  account  of  one  of  those  feuds,  which, 
I  believe,  led  to  the  last  considerable  clan-battle  fought  in 
the  Highlands. 

There  had  been,  for  a  great  many  years,  much  debate, 
and  some  skirmishing,  betwixt  Macintosh  of  Moy,  the 
rhief  of  that  ancient  surname,  and  a  sept  of  MacDonalds 
called  MacDonalds  of  Keppoch.  The  Macintoshes  had 
claims  of  an  ancient  date  upon  the  district  of  Glenroy, 
(now  famous  for  the  phenomenon  called  the  parallel  roads,) 
and  the  neighbouring  valley  of  Glenspean.  Macintosh 
had  his  right  to  these  lands  expressed  in  written  grants 
from  the  Crown,  but  Keppoch  was  in  actual  possession  of 
the  property.  When  asked  upon  what  charters  he  found- 
ed his  claim,  MacDonald  replied,  that  he  held  his  lands, 
not  by  a  sheep's  skin,  but  by  the  sword  ;  and  his  clan,  an 
uncommonly  bold  and  hardy  race,  were  ready  to  support 
nis  boast.  Several  proposals  having  been  in  vain  made  to 
accommodate  this  matter,  Macintosh  resolved  to  proceed 
to  open  force,  and  possess  himself  of  the  disputed  terri- 
tory. He  therefore  displayed  the  yellow  'banner,  which 
was  the  badge  of  his  family,  raised  his  clan  and  marched 
towards  Keppoch,  being  assisted  by  an  independent  com- 
pany of  soldiers,  raised  for  the  service  of  government,  and 
commanded  by  Captain  MacKenzie  of  Suddie.  It  dcea 
not  appear  by  what  interest  this  formidable  auxiliary  force 
was  procured,  but  probably  by  an  order  from  government. 

On  their  arrival  at  Keppoch,  Macintosh  found  his  rival's 
house  deserted,  and  imagining  himself  in  possession  of 
victory,  even  without  a  combat,  he  employed  many  work- 
men, whom  he  had  brought  with  him  for  that  purpose,  to 
construct  a  castle,  or  fort,  on  a  precipitous  bank  overhang- 
It)  2 


130  FECD    BETWEEN 

ing  the  River  Roy,  where  the  vestiges  of  his  operations 
are  still  to  be  :>een.  The  work  was  speedily  nterrupted, 
by  tidings  that  the  MacDonalds  of  Keppoch,  assisted  by 
llirir  kindred  tribes  of  Glengarry  and  Glencoe,  had  as- 
sembled, and  that  they  were  lying  on  their  arms,  in  greai 
numbers,  in  a  narrow  glen  behind  the  ridge  of  hills  which 
rises  to  the  north-east  of  Keppoch,  the  sloping  declivity 
of  \vliich  is  called  Mullroy.  Their  purpose  was  to  attack 
Macintosh  at  day-break  ;  but  that  chief  determined  to 
anticipate  their  design,  and  marched  towards  his  enemy 
before  the  first  peep  of  dawn.  The  MacDonalds,  with 
their  chief,  Coll  of  Keppoch,  were  equally  ready  for  the 
conflict ;  and,  in  the  grey  light  of  the  morning,  when  the 
Macintoshes  had  nearly  surmounted  the  heights  of  Mull- 
roy, the  MacDonalds  appeared  in  possession  of  the  upper 
ridge,  and  a  battle  instantly  commenced. 

A  lad  who  had  lately  run  away  from  his  master,  a  to- 
bacco-spinner in  Inverness,  and  had  enlisted  in  Suddie's 
independent  company,  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
action.  "  The  MacDonalds  came  down  the  hill  upon  us, 
without  either  shoe,  stocking,  or  bonnet  on  their  heads ; 
they  gave  a  shout,  and  then  the  fire  began  on  both  sides ; 
and  continued  a  hot  dispute  for  an  hour,  (which  made  me 
wish  I  had  been  spinning  tobacco.)  Then  they  broke  in 
upon  us  with  sword  and  target,  and  Lochaber-axes,  which 
obliged  us  to  give  way.  Seeing  my  captain  severely 
wounded,  and  a  great  many  men  lying  with  heads  cloven 
on  every  side,  and  having  never  witnessed  the  like  before, 
1  was  sadly  affrighted.  At  length  a  Highlandman  attack- 
ed me  with  sword  and  target,  and  cut  my  wooden-handled 
bayonet  out  of  the  muzzle  of  my  gun.  I  then  clubbed 
my  gun,  and  gave  him  a  stroke  with  it,  which  made  the 
but-end  to  fly  off,  and  seeing  the  Highlandmen  come  fast 
down  upon  me,  I  took  to  my  heels,  and  ran  thirty  miles 
before  I  looked  behind  me,  taking  every  person  whom  I 
saw  or  met  for  my  enemy."  Many,  better  used  to  such 
scenes,  fled  as  far  and  fast  as  Donald  MacBane,  the  to- 
bacco-spinner's apprentice.  The  gentleman  who  bore 
Macintosh's  standard,  being  a  special  object  of  pursuit 


MOY    AND    KEPPOCII.  131 

saved  himself  and  the  sacred  deposit  by  a  wonderful  ex- 
ertion.  At  a  place  where  the  River  Roy  flows  between 
two  precipitous  rocks,  which  approach  each  other  over  the 
torrent,  he  hazarded  a  desperate  leap  where  no  enemy 
dared  follow  him,  and  bore  off  his  charge  in  safety. 

It  is  said  by  tradition  that  the  Macintoshes  fought  with 
much  bravery,  and  that  the  contest  was  decided  by  the 
desperation  of  a  half-crazed  man,  called  "  the  red-haired 
Bo-man,"  or  cow-herd,  whom  Keppoch  had  not  summon- 
ed to  the  fight,  but  who  came  hither,  nevertheless,  with  a 
club  on  his  shoulder.  This  man,  being  wounded  by  a 
shot,  was  so  much  incensed  with  the  pain,  that  he  darted 
forward  into  the  thickest  of  the  Macintoshes,  calling  out, 
"  They  fly,  they  fly  !  upon  them,  upon  them  !"  The 
boldness  he  displayed,  and  the  strokes  he  dealt  with  his 
unusual  weapon,  caused  the  first  impression  on  the  array 
of  the  enemies  of  his  chief. 

MacDonald  was  very  unwilling  to  injure  any  of  the  gov- 
ernment soldiers,  yet  Suddie,  their  commander,  received 
his  death-stroke.  He  was  brave,  and  well  armed  with 
carabine,  pistols,  and  a  halbert  or  half-pike.  This  officer 
came  in  front  of  a  cadet  of  Keppoch,  called  MacDonald 
of  Tullich,  and  by  a  shot  aimed  at  him,  killed  one  of  his 
brothers,  and  then  rushed  on  with  his  pike.  Notwith- 
standing this  deep  provocation,  Tullich,  sensible  of  the 
pretext  which  the  death  of  a  captain  under  government 
would  give  against  his  clan,  called  out  more  than  once, 
"  Avoid  me — avoid  me." — "  The  MacDonald  was  never 
born  that  I  would  shun,"  replied  the  MacKenzie,  pressing 
on  with  his  pike.  On  which  Tullich  hurled  at  his  head 
a  pistol,  which  he  had  before  discharged.  The  blow  took 
effect,  the  skull  was  fractured,  and  MacKenzie  died  shortly 
after,  as  his  soldiers  were  carrying  him  to  Inverness. 

Macintosh  himself  was  taken  by  his  rival,  who,  in  his 
esteem,  was  only  an  insurgent  vassal.  When  the  captive 
heard  the  MacDonalds  greeting  their  chieftain  with  shouts 
of  "  Lord  of  Keppoch  !  Lord  of  Keppoch  !"  he  address- 
ed him  boldly,  saying,  "  You  are  as  Jar  from  being  Lord 
of  the  lauds  of  Keppoch  at  this  moment,  as  you  have  leen 


l3*  FEUD    BKTWKKX    MOY    AM)    KKIM'OCII. 

all  your  life.'  — "  Never  mind,"  answered  the  victorious 
chieftain,  with  much  good-humour,  "  we'll  enjoy  the  good 
weather  while  it  lasts."  Accordingly,  the  victory  of  Ina 
tribe  is  still  recorded  in  the  pipe-tune,  called,  "  AlacDon- 
ald  took  the  brae  on  them." 

Some  turn  of  fortune  seemed  about  to  take  place  im- 
mediately after  the  battle  ;  for  before  the  MacDonalds  had 
collected  their  scattered  forces,  the  war-pipes  were  again 
heard,  and  a  fresh  body  of  Highlanders  appeared  advanc- 
ing towards  Keppoch,  in  the  direction  of  Garvamoor. 
This  was  owing  to  one  of  those  sudden  changes  of  senti- 
ment by  which  men  in  the  earlier  stages  of  society  are 
often  influenced.  The  advancing  party  was  the  clan  of 
MacPherson,  members,  like  the  Macintoshes,  of  the  con- 
federacy called  the  Clan  Chattan,  but  who,  disputing  with 
them  the  precedence  in  that  body,  were  their  friends  or  en- 
emies, as  the  recollection  of  former  kindnesses  or  ancient 
quarrels,  prevailed.  On  this  occasion  the  MacPhersons 
nad  not  accompanied  Macintosh  to  the  field,  there  being 
some  discord  betwixt  the  tribes  at  the  time  ;  but  when 
they  heard  of  Macintosh's  defeat,  they  could  not  recon- 
cile it  with  their  honour,  to  suffer  so  important  a  member 
of  their  confederacy  to  remain  captive  with  the  MacDon- 
alds. They  advanced,  therefore,  in  order  of  battle,  and 
sent  Keppoch  a  flag  of  truce,  to  demand  that  Macintosh 
should  be  delivered  to  them. 

The  chief  of  Keppoch,  though  victorious,  was  in  no 
condition  for  a  fresh  contest,  and  therefore  surrendered 
his  prisoner,  who  was  much  more  mortified  by  finding 
himself  in  the  hands  of  the  MacPhersons,  than  rejoiced 
in  escaping  from  those  of  his  conqueror,  Keppoch.  So 
predominant  was  his  sense  of  humiliation,  that  when  the 
MacPhersons  proposed  to  conduct  him  to  Cli'.ny,  the  seat 
of  their  chief,  he  resisted  at  first  in  fair  terms,  and  when 
the  visit  was  urged  upon  him,  he  threatened  to  pierce  his 
bosom  with  his  own  dirk,  if  they  should  persevere  in  com- 
pelling him  to  visit  Cluny  in  his  present  situation.  The 
INlacPhersons  were  generous,  and  escorted  him  to  his  own 
estates. 


ADVANCE  OF  MACKAY  TO  THE  NOR1 H       133 

The  issue  of  the  conflict  at  Mullroy,  so  mortifying  to 
the  conquered  chief,  was  also  followed  with  disastrous 
consequences  to  the  victor. 

The  resistance  offered  to  the  royal  troops,  and  the 
death  of  MacKenzie  of  Suddie  who  commanded  them, 
together  with  the  defeat  of  Macintosh,  who  had  the  forms 
of  the  law  on  his  side,  gave  effect  to  his  complaints  to  the 
Privy  Council.  Letters  of  fire  and  sword,  as  they  were 
called,  that  is,  a  commission  to  burn  and  destroy  the 
country  and  lands  of  an  offending  chieftain,  or  district, 
were  issued  against  Coll  MacDonald  of  Keppoch.  Sixty 
dragoons,  and  two  hundred  of  the  foot  guards,  were  de- 
tached into  Glenroy  and  Glenspean,  with  orders  to  destroy 
man,  woman,  and  child,  and  lay  waste  Keppoch 's  estates. 
Keppoch  himself  was  for  a  time  obliged  to  fly,  but  a 
wealthy  kinsman  purchased  his  peace  by  a  large  erick,  or 
fine.  We  shall  presently  find  him  engaged  in  a  conflict, 
where  the  destiny,  not  of  two  barren  glens,  but  of  a  fair 
kingdom,  seemed  to  depend  upon  the  issue. 

This  brings  us  back  to  Dundee,  who,  in  spring  1689, 
received  intelligence  that  General  MacKay,  an  officer  in- 
trusted by  King  William  with  the  command  of  the  forces 
in  Scotland,  was  marching  against  him  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  regular  troops.  MacKay  was  a  man  of  courage, 
sense,  and  experience,  but  rather  entitled  to  the  praise  of 
a  good  officer  than  an  able  general,  and  better  qualified 
to  obey  the  orders  of  an  intelligent  commander,  than  pen- 
etrate into,  encounter,  and  defeat,  the  schemes  of  such  an 
active  spirit  as  Dundee. 

Of  this  there  was  an  instance  in  the  very  beginning  of 
the  conflict,  when  MacKay  advanced  towards  Dudhope 
Castle,  with  the  hope  of  coming  upon  his  antagonist  at 
unawares  ;  but  Dundee  was  not  to  be  taken  by  surprise. 
Marching  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  horse  to  the  town  of 
Inverness,  he  found  MacDonald  of  Keppoch  at  the  head 
of  several  hundred  Highlanders,  blockading  the  place,  on 
account  of  the  citizens  having  taken  part  with  Macintosh 
against  his  clan.  Dundee  offered  his  mediation,  and  per- 


134  CAPTURE    OF    PERTH    BY    DUNDEE. 

suader.  the  magistrates  to  gratify  Keppoch  with  the  sum 
of  two  thousand  dollars,  for  payment  of  which  he  granted 
his  own  bond  in  security.  He  manifested  his  influence 
over  the  rninds  of  the  mountain  chiefs  still  more,  by  pre- 
vailing on  Keppoch,  though  smarting  under  the  injuries  he 
had  sustained,  by  the  letters  of  fire  and  sword  issued 
against  him  by  King  James's  government,  to  join  him  with 
his  clan,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  that  monarch  to  the 
throne. 

Thus  reinforced,  but  still  far  inferior  in  numbers  to  his 
opponent  MacKay,  Dundee,  by  a  rapid  movement,  sur- 
prised the  town  of  Perth.  He  seized  what  public  treas- 
ure he  found  in  the  hands  of  the  receiver  of  taxes,  say- 
ing that  he  would  plunder  no  private  person,  but  thought 
it  was  fair  to  take  the  King's  money  for  the  King's  service. 
He  dispersed,  at  the  same  time,  two  troops  of  horse, 
newly  raised  by  government,  seized  their  horses  and 
accoutrements,  and  made  prisoners  their  commanding 
officers,  the  Lairds  of  Pollock  and  of  Blair. 

After  this  exploit,  Dundee  retreated  into  the  Highlands 
to  recruit  his  little  army,  to  wait  for  a  body  of  three 
thousand  men  whom  he  expected  from  Ireland,  and  to 
seek  a  suitable  time  for  forwarding  the  explosion  of  a 
conspiracy,  which  had  been  formed  in  a  regiment  of  dra- 
goons now  serving  in  MacKay's  army,  but  which  he  had 
himself  commanded  before  the  Revolution.  Both  the 
officers  and  men  of  this  regiment  were  willing  to  return 
to  the  command  of  their  old  leader,  and  the  allegiance 
of  their  former  King.  Creichton,  an  officer  in  the  regi- 
ment, the  same  whose  attack  on  a  conventicle  I  formerly 
told  you  of,  was  the  chief  conductor  of  this  conspiracy. 
It  was  discovered  by  MacKay  just  when  it  was  on  the 
point  of  taking  effect,  and  when  the  event,  with  such  an 
enemy  as  Dundee  in  his  vicinity,  must  have  been  destruc- 
tion to  his  army.  MacKay  cautiously  disguised  his 
knowledge  of  the  plot  until  he  was  joined  by  strong  re- 
mforcements,  which  enabled  him  to  seize  upon  the  prin- 
cipal conspirators,  and  disarm  and  disband  their  inferior 
accomplices. 


ANECDOTE    OF    DUNDEE.  135 

The  Privy  Council  had  a  great  inclination  to  make  ao 
example,  which  should  discourage  such  practices  in  fu- 
ture ;  and  Captain  Creichton,  being  the  chief  agent,  a 
stranger,  and  without  friends,  was  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose of  being  hanged,  as  a  warning  to  others.  But  Dun- 
dee did  not  desert  his  old  comrade.  He  sent  a  message 
lo  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  saying,  that  if  they 
hurt  a  hair  of  Creichton's  head,  he  would  in  the  way  of 
reprisal  cut  his  prisoners,  the  lairds  of  Pollock  and  Blair, 
joint  from  joint,  and  send  them  to  Edinburgh,  packed  up 
in  hampers.  The  Council  were  alarmed  on  receiving 
this  intimation.  The  Duke  of  Hamilton  reminded  them, 
that  they  all  knew  Dundee  so  well  that  they  could  not 
doubt  his  being  as  good  as  his  word,  and  that  the  gentle- 
men in  his  hands  were  too  nearly  allied  to  several  of  the 
Council  to  be  endangered  on  account  of  Creichton. 
These  remonstrances  saved  Creichton's  life. 

A  good  deal  of  marching,  countermarching,  and  occa- 
sional skirmishing,  ensued  between  Dundee  and  Mac- 
Kay,  during  which  an  incident  is  said  to  have  occurred 
strongly  indicative  of  the  character  of  the  former.  A 
young  man  had  joined  Dundee's  army,  the  son  of  one  of 
his  old  and  intimate  friends.  He  was  employed  upon 
some  reconnoitring  service,  in  which,  a  skirmish  taking 
place,  the  new  recruit's  heart  failed  him,  and  he  fairly 
fled  out  of  the  fray.  Dundee  covered  his  dishonour,  l>y 
pretending  that  he  himself  had  despatched  him  to  the 
rear  upon  a  message  of  importance.  He  then  sent  for 
the  youth  to  speak  with  him  in  private.  "  Young  man," 
he  said,  "  I  have  saved  your  honour ;  but  I  must  needs 
tell  you,  that  you  have  chosen  a  trade  for  which  you  are 
constitutionally  unfit  It  is  not  perhaps  your  fault,  but 
rather  your  misfortune,  that  you  do  not  possess  the  strength 
of  nerves  necessary  to  encounter  the  dangers  of  battle. 
Return  to  your  father — I  will  find  an  excuse  for  your 
doing  so  with  honour — and  I  will  put  you  in  the  way  oi 
doing  King  James's  cause  effectual  service,  without  per 
sonally  engaging  in  the  war." 


JtiO  BATTLfc    OF    KILL1ECRANKIE. 

The  young  gentleman,  penetrated  with  a  senje  of  the 
deepest  shame,  threw  himself  at  his  General's  feet,  nnd 
protested  that  his  failure  in  duty  was  only  the  effect  of  a 
momentary  weakness,  the  recollection  of  which  should 
be  effaced  by  his  future  conduct,  and  entreated  Dundee, 
for  the  love  he  bore  his  father,  to  give  him  at  least  a 
chance  of  regaining  his  reputation.  Dundee  still  endea- 
voured to  dissuade  him  from  remaining  with  the  army, 
but  as  he  continued  urgent  to  be  admitted  to  a  second 
trial,  he  reluctantly  gave  way  to  his  request.  "  But  re- 
member," he  said,  "  that  if  your  heart  fails  you  a  second 
time,  you  must  die.  The  cause  I  am  engaged  in  is  a 
desperate  one,  and  I  can  permit  no  man  to  serve  under 
me  who  is  not  prepared  to  fight  to  the  last.  My  own 
life,  and  those  of  all  others  who  serve  under  me,  are  un- 
sparingly devoted  to  the  cause  of  King  James ;  and 
death  must  be  his  lot  who  shows  an  example  of  cow- 
ardice." 

The  unfortunate  young  man  embraced  with  seeming 
eagerness,  this  stern  proposal.  But  in  the  next  skirmish 
in  which  he  was  engaged,  his  constitutional  timidity  again 
prevailed.  He  turned  his  horse  to  fly,  when  Dundee 
coming  up  to  him,  only  said,  "  The  son  of  your  father 
is  too  good  a  man  to  be  consigned  to  the  provost  mar- 
shal ;"  and  without  another  word  he  shot  him  through 
the  head  with  his  pistol,  with  a  sternness  and  inflexibility 
of  purpose,  resembling  the  stoicism  of  the  ancient  Ro- 
mans. 

Circumstances  began  now  to  render  Dundee  desirous 
of  trying  the  chance  of  battle,  which  he  had  hitherto 
avoided.  The  Marquis  of  Athole,  who  had  vacillated 
more  than  once  during  the  progress  of  the  Revolution, 
now  abandoned  entirely  the  cause  of  King  James,  and 
sent  his  son  Lord  Murray,  into  Athole,  to  raise  the  clans 
of  that  country,  Stewarts,  Robertsons,  Fergusons,  and 
others,  who  were  accustomed  to  follow  the  family  of 
Athole  in  war,  from  respect  to  the  Marquis's  rank  ana 
•sower,  though  they  were  not  his  patriarchical  subjects  01 
riansmen.  One  of  these  gentlemen,  Stewart  of  Boquhan 


BATTMl    OF    KILI-IECUANKIE.  131 

although  dependant  on  the  Marquis,  was  resolved  not  to 
obey  him  through  his  versatile  changes  of  politics.  Hav 
ing  been  placed  in  possession  of  the  strong  castle  of  Blair, 
a  fortress  belonging  to  the  Marquis,  which  commands  the 
most  important  pass  into  the  northern  Highlands,  Stewart 
refused  to  surrender  it  to  Lord  Murray,  and  declared  he 
held  it  for  King  James,  by  order  of  the  Viscount  of  Dun- 
dee. Lord  Murray,  rinding  his  father's  own  house  thus 
defended  against  him,  sent  the  tidings  to  General  Mac- 
Kay,  who  assembled  about  three  thousand  foot,  and  two 
troops  of  horse,  and  advanced  with  all  haste  into  Athole, 
determined  to  besiege  Blair,  and  to  fight  Dundee,  should 
he  march  to  its  relief. 

At  this  critical  period,  Lord  Murray  had  assembled 
about  eight  hundred  Athole  Highlanders,  of  the  clans 
already  named,  who  were  brought  together  under  pre- 
tence of  preserving  the  peace  of  the  country.  Many  of 
them,  however,  began  to  suspect  the  purpose  of  Lord 
Murray  to  join  MacKay;  and  recollecting  that  it  was  un- 
der Montrose's  command,  and  in  the  cause  of  the  Stew- 
arts, that  their  fathers  had  gained  their  fame,  they  resolv- 
ed they  would  not  be  diverted  from  the  same  course  of 
loyalty,  as  they  esteemed  it.  They,  therefore,  let  Lord 
Murray  know,  that  if  it  was  his  intention  to  join  Dundee, 
they  would  all  follow  him  to  the  death  ;  but  if  he  propos- 
ed to  embrace  the  side  of  King  William,  they  would 
presently  leave  him.  Lord  Murray  answered  with  men- 
aces of  that  vengeance  which  a  feudal  lord  could  take 
upon  disobedient  vassals,  when  his  men,  setting  his  th  'eats 
at  defiance,  ran  to  the  river,  and  filling  their  bonnets  with 
water,  drank  King  James's  health,  and  left  the  standard 
of  the  Marquis  to  a  man — a  single  defection  among  the 
Highlanders  of  that  period,  who  usually  followed  to  the 
field  their  immediate  superior,  with  little  choice  as  to  the 
side  of  politics  which  he  was  pleased  to  embrace. 

These  tidings  came  to  Dundee  with  the  information 
that  MacKay  had  reached  Dunkeld,  with  the  purpose  of 
seducing  Blair,  and  punishing  the  Athole  gentlemen,  for 

903 


138  BATTLE  OF  KILLIECRANKIE. 

their  desertion  of  the  standard  of  their  chief.  Ahout  the 
same  time,  General  Cannon  joined  the  Viscount,  with 
the  reinforcement  so  long  expected  from  Ireland ;  but 
they  amounted  to  only  three  hundred  men,  instead  of  as 
many  thousands,  and  were  totally  destitute  of  money  and 
provisions,  both  of  which  were  to  have  been  sent  with 
them.  Nevertheless,  Dundee  resolved  to  preserve  the 
castle  of  Blair,  so  important  as  a  key  to  the  Northern 
Highlands,  and  marched  to  protect  it  with  a  body  of 
about  two  thousand  Highlanders,  with  whom  he  occupied 
the  upper  and  northern  extremity  of  the  pass  between 
Dunkeld  and  Blair. 

In  this  celebrated  defile,  called  the  Pass  of  Killie- 
crankie,  the  road  runs  for  several  miles  along  the  banks 
of  a  furious  river  called  the  Garry,  w:hich  rages  below, 
amongst  cataracts  and  water-falls  which  the  eye  can 
scarcely  discern,  while  a  series  of  precipices  and  wooded 
mountains  rise  on  the  other  hand  ;  and  the  road  itself  is 
the  only  mode  of  access  through  the  glen,  and  along  the 
valley  which  lies  at  its  northern  extremity.  A  defile  of 
such  difficulty  was  capable  of  being  defended  to  the  last 
extremity  by  a  small  number  against  a  considerable  army, 
and,  considering  how  well  adapted  his  followers  were  for 
such  mountain-warfare,  many  of  the  Highland  chiefs 
were  of  opinion,  that  Dundee  ought  to  content  himself 
with  guarding  the  pass  against  MacKay's  superior  army, 
until  a  rendezvous,  which  they  had  appointed,  should  as- 
semble a  stronger  force  of  their  countrymen.  But  Dun- 
dee was  of  a  different  opinion,  and  resolved  to  suffer 
MacKay  to  march  through  the  pass  without  opposition, 
and  then  to  fight  him  in  the  open  valley,  at  the  northern 
extremity.  He  chose  this  bold  measure,  both  because  it 
promised  a  very  decisive  result  to  the  combat ;  and  also 
because  he  preferred  fighting  MacKay  before  he  was 
joined  by  a  considerable  body  of  English  horse  who 
were  expected,  and  of  whom  the  Highlanders  had  at  that 
time  some  dread. 

<)n  the  17th  June,  1689,  General  MacKay  with  his 
troops  entered  the  pass,  which,  to  their  astonishment. 


BATTLE    OF    KILLIECRANKIE.  136 

they  found  unoccupied  by  the  enemy.  His  forces  were 
partly  English  and  Dutch  regiments,  who,  with  many  oi 
the  Lowland  Scots  themselves,  were  struck  with  awe, 
and  even  fear,  at  finding  themselves  introduced  by  such 
a  magnificent,  and  at  the  same  time  formidable  avenue, 
to  the  presence  of  their  enemies,  the  inhabitants  of  these 
tremendous  mountains,  into  whose  recesses  they  were 
penetrating.  But  besides  the  effect  on  their  minds  pro- 
duced by  the  magnificence  of  natural  scenery,  to  which 
they  were  wholly  unaccustomed,  the  consideration  must 
have  hung  heavy  on  them,  that  if  a  general  of  Dundee's 
talents  suffered  them  to  march  unopposed  through  a  pass 
so  difficult,  it  must  be  because  he  was  conscious  of  pos- 
sessing strength  sufficient  to  attack  and  destroy  them  at 
the  further  extremity,  when  their  only  retreat  would  lie 
through  the  narrow  and  perilous  path  by  whicli  they  were 
now  advancing. 

Mid-day  was  past  ere  MacKay's  men  were  extricated 
from  the  defile,  when  their  general  drew  them  up  in  one 
line  three  deep,  without  any  reserve,  along  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  narrow  valley  into  which  the  pass  opens. 
A  hill  on  the  north  side  of  the  valley,  covered  with  dwarf 
trees  and  bushes,  formed  the  position  of  Dundee's  army, 
which,  divided  into  columns,  formed  by  the  different 
clans,  was  greatly  outflanked  by  MacKay's  troops. 

The  armies  shouted  when  they  came  in  sight  of  each 
other ;  but  the  enthusiasm  of  MacKay's  soldiers  being 
damped  by  the  circumstances  we  have  observed,  their 
military  shout  made  but  a  dull  and  sullen  sound  compared 
to  the  yell  of  the  Highlanders,  which  rung  far  and  shrill 
from  all  the  hills  around  them.  Sir  Evan  Cameron  of 
Lochiel,  of  whom  I  gave  you  some  anecdotes,  called  on 
those  around  him  to  attend  to  this  circumstance,  saying, 
that  in  all  his  battles  he  observed  victory  had  ever  been 
on  the  side  of  those  whose  shout  before  joining  seemed 
most  sprightly  and  confident.  It  was  accounted  a  less 
favourable  augury  by  some  of  the  old  Highlanders,  that 
Dundee  at  this  noment  put  on  a  sad-coloured  buff-coat 


140  BATTLE    OF    KILLIECRANKIE. 

above  the  scarlet  cassock  and  bright  cuirass,  in  which  nc 
had  hitherto  appeared. 

It  was  some  time  ere  Dundee  had  completed  his  pre- 
parations for  the  assault  which  he  meditated,  and  only  a 
few  dropping  shots  were  exchanged,  while,  in  order  to 
"prevent  the  risk  of  being  outflanked,  he  increased  the 
intervals  between  the  columns  with  which  he  designed  to 
charge,  insomuch,  that  he  had  scarce  men  enough  left  in 
the  centre.  About  an  hour  before  sunset,  he  sent  word 
to  Mac  Kay  that  he  was  about  to  attack  him,  and  gave  the 
signal  to  charge. 

The  Highlanders  stript  themselves  to  their  shirts  and 
doublets,  threw  away  every  thing  that  could  impede  the 
fury  of  their  onset,  and  then  put  themselves  in  motion, 
accompanying  with  a  dreadful  yell  the  discordant  sound 
of  their  war-pipes.  As  they  advanced,  the  clansmen 
6red  their  pieces,  each  column  thus  pouring  in  a  well- 
aimed  though  irregular  volley,  when,  throwing  down  their 
fusees,  without  waiting  to  reload,  they  drew  their  swords, 
and,  increasing  their  pace  to  the  utmost  speed,  pierced 
through  and  broke  the  thin  line  which  was  opposed  to 
them,  and  profited  by  their  superior  activity  and  the  na- 
ture of  their  weapons  to  make  a  great  havoc  among  the 
regular  troops.  When  thus  mingled  with  each  other, 
nand  to  hand,  the  advantages  of  superior  discipline  on 
the  part  of  the  Lowland  soldier  were  lost — Agility  and 
strength  were  on  the  side  of  the  mountaineers.  Some 
accounts  of  the  battle  give  a  terrific  account  of  the  blows 
struck  by  the  Highlanders,  which  cleft  heads  down  to  the 
breast,  cut  steel  head-pieces  asunder  as  night-caps,  and 
slashed  through  pikes  like  willows.  Two  of  MacKay'? 
regiments  in  the  centre  stood  fast,  the  interval  betweer 
the  attacking  columns  being  so  great  that  none  were 
placed  opposite  to  them.  The  rest  were  totally  routed 
and  driven  headlong  into  the  river. 

Dundee  himself,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  High- 
land chiefs,  was  in  front  of  the  battle,  and  fatally  con- 
spicuous. By  a  desperate  attack  he  possessed  himself 
of  MacKay's  artillery,  and  then  led  his  bar  dful  of  caval- 


DEATH    OF    DUNDEE.  Ill 

ry,  aboi.t  fifty  men,  against  two  troops  of  horse,  who  fled 
without  fighting.  Observing  the  stand  made  by  the  two 
regiments  already  mentioned,  he  galloped  towards  the  clan 
of  MacDonaH,  and  was  in  the  act  of  bringing  them  to  the 
charge,  with  his  right  arm  elevated,  as  if  pointing  the  way 
to  victory,  when  he  was  struck  by  a  bullet  beneath  the 
arm-pit,  where  he  was  unprotected  by  his  cuirass.  He 
tried  to  ride  on,  but  being  unable  to  keep  the  saddle,  fell 
mortally  wounded,  and  died  in  the  course  of  the  night. 

It  was  impossible  for  a  victory  to  be  more  complete 
than  that  gained  by  the  Highlanders  at  Killiecrankie. 
The  cannon,  baggage,  and  stores  of  MacKay's  army,  fell 
into  their  hands.  The  two  regiments  which  kept  their 
ground  suffered  so  much  in  their  attempt  to  retreat  through 
the  pass,  now  occupied  by  the  Athole-men,  in  their  rear, 
that  they  might  be  considered  as  destroyed.  Two  thou- 
sand of  MacKay's  army  were  killed  or  taken,  and  the 
general  himself  escaped  with  difficulty  to  Stirling,  at  the 
head  of  a  few  horse.  The  Highlanders,  whose  dense 
columns  underwent  three  successive  volleys  from  Mac- 
Kay's  line,  had  eight  hundred  men  slain. 

But  all  other  losses  were  unimportant  compared  to  that 
of  Dundee,  with  whom  were  forfeited  all  the  fruits  of 
that  bloody  victory.  MacKay,  when  he  found  himself 
free  from  pursuit,  declared  his  conviction  that  his  oppo- 
nent had  fallen  in  the  battle.  And  such  was  the  opinion 
of  Dundee's  talents  and  courage,  and  the  general  senso 
of  the  peculiar  crisis  at  which  his  death  took  place,  that 
the  common  people  of  the  low  country  cannot,  even  now, 
be  persuaded  that  he  died  in  ordinary  death.  They  say, 
that  a  servant  of  his  own,  shocked  at  the  severities  which, 
if  triumphant,  his  master  was  likely  to  accomplish  against 
the  Presbyterians,  and  giving  way  to  the  popular  preju- 
dice of  his  having  a  charm  against  the  effect  of  lead-balls, 
shot  him,  in  the  tumult  of  the  battle,  with  a  silver  butter 
taken  from  his  livery  coat.  The  Jacobites,  and  Episco- 
pal party,  on  the  other  hand,  lamented  the  deceased  victoi 
as  the  last  of  the  Scots,  the  last  of  the  Grahams,  and  the 
last  of  all  that  was  great. 


142  CANNON     SUCCKKJ)S    UUM>KE. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Cannon  sLcceeds  Dundee,  and  is  defeated  at  Dunkeld— 
The  Cameronian  Regiment — Skirmish  at  Cromdale 
— Pacification  of  the  Highlands,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  Earl  of  Brcadalbane — Company  oj 
Jacobite  Officers  in  the  French  Service  as  Privates — 
Reduction  of  the  Bass — Settlement  of  Church  Affair  A 
— The,  Assurance. 

THE  Viscount  of  Dundee  was  one  of  those  gifted  per- 
sons upon  whose  single  fate  that  of  nations  is  sometimes 
dependent.  His  own  party  believed,  that,  had  he  lived 
to  improve  the  decisive  victory  which  he  had  so  bravely 
won,  he  would  have  soon  recovered  Scotland  to  King 
James's  allegiance.  It  is  certain,  a  great  many  of  the 
nobility  only  waited  a  gleam  of  success  to  return  to  the 
Jacobite  side  ;  nor  were  the  revolutionary  party  so  united 
amongst  themselves  as  to  have  offered  a  very  firm  resist- 
ance. The  battle  of  Killiecrankie,  duly  improved,  must 
have  delivered  the  whole  of  Scotland  north  of  the  Forth 
into  the  power  of  Dundee,  and  rendered  even  Stirling 
and  Edinburgh  insecure.  Such  a  flame  kindled  in  Scot- 
land, must  have  broken  many  of  King  William's  meas- 
ures, rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  go  to  Ireland, 
where  his  presence  was  of  the  last  necessity,  and  have 
been,  to  say  the  least,  of  ihe  highest  prejudice  to  his 
affairs. 

But  all  the  advantages  of  the  victory  were  lost  in  the 
death  of  the  conquering  general.  Cannon,  who  succeed- 
ed to  the  chief  command  on  Dundee's  decease,  was  a 
stranger  to  Highland  manners,  and  quite  inadequate  to 
the  management  of  such  an  army  as  that  which  chance 
placed  under  his  command.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  fame 
of  the  victory  and  that  love  of  plunder  and  of  war,  whirl: 


DEFEAT    OF    CANNON    AT    DUNKF.LD.  143 

made  part  of  the  Highland  character,  brought  around 
him,  from  the  remote  recesses  of  that  warlike  country,  a 
more  numerous  body  of  the  mountaineers  than  Montrose 
had  ever  commanded.  By  the  timidity  and  indecision 
of  his  opponent,  MacKay  gained  time  enough  to  collect, 
which  he  did  with  celerity,  a  body  of  troops,  sufficient  to 
coop  up  the  Jacobite  general  within  his  mountains,  and  to 
maintain  an  indecisive  war  of  posts  and  skirmishes,  which 
weaned  out  the  patience  of  the  quick-spirited  Highlanders. 
Cannon  attempted  only  one  piece  of  service  worthy  of 
mention,  and  in  that  he  was  foiled.  Jn  the  extremity  of 
the  alarm  which  followed  the  defeat  of  Killiecrankie,  the 
newly  raised  regiment  of  Cameronians  had  been  de- 
spatched to  the  Highlands.  They  had  advanced  as  far 
as  Dunkeld,  when  Cannon  for  once  showed  some  activity, 
and  getting  free  from  MacKay  by  a  rapid  and  secret 
march,  he  at  once  surrounded,  in  the  village  and  castle  of 
Dunkeld,  about  twelve  hundred  Cameronians,  with  more 
than  double  their  own  forces.  Their  situation  seemed  so 
desperate,  that  a  party  of  horse  who  were  with  them 
retired,  and  left  the  hill-men  to  their  fate. 

But  the  newly  acquired  discipline  of  these  hardy  en- 
thusiasts prevented  their  experiencing  the  fate  of  their 
predecessors  at  Bothwell  and  Pentland.  They  were  ju- 
diciously posted  in  the  Marquis  of  Athole's  house,  and 
neighbouring  enclosures,  as  also  in  the  churchyard  and 
the  old  cathedral  ;  and  with  the  advantage  of  this  position 
they  beat  off  repeatedly  the  fierce  attacks  of  the  High- 
landers, though  very  inferior  in  numbers.  This  advan- 
tage restored  the  spirits  of  the  King's  troops,  and  dimin- 
ished considerably  that  of  the  Highlanders,  who,  according 
to  their  custom,  began  to  disperse  and  return  home. 

The  Cameronian  regiment  lost  in  this  action  their  gal- 
lant Lieutenant-Colonel,  Cleland,  and  many  men.  But 
they  were  victorious,  and  that  was  a  sufficient  consolation. 

You  may  have  some  curiosity  to  know  the  further  fate 
of  this  singular  regiment.  The  peculiar  and  narrow- 
minded  ideas  of  the  sect  led  many  of  them  to  entertain 
doubts  of  the  lawfulness  of  the  part  they  had  taken.  The 


144  THE    CAMERONIAN    REGIMENT. 

Presbyterian  worship  hat!  indeed  been  established  as  the 
national  church  ;  but  it  was  fur  from  having  attained  thai 
dr>|>otic  authority  claimed  for  it  by  the  Cameronians,  and 
therefore,  although  at  the  first  landing  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  they  had  felt  it  matter  of  duty  to  espouse  his 
cause,  yet  they  were  utterly  disgusted  with  the  mode  in 
\vhir-h  he  had  settled  the  state,  and  especially  the  Church 
of  Scotland. 

William,  a  wise  and  prudent  monarch,  saw  the  impos- 
sibility of  bringing  the  country  to  a  state  of  quiet  settle- 
ment, if  he  kept  alive  the  old  feuds  by  which  it  had  been 
recently  divided,  or  if  he  permitted  the  oppressed  Pres- 
byterians to  avenge  themselves  as  they  desired  upon  their 
former  persecutors.  He  admitted  all  persons  alike  to 
serve  the  state,  whatever  had  been  their  former  principles 
and  practice  ;  and  thus  many  were  reconciled  to  his  gov- 
ernment, who,  if  they  had  felt  themselves  endangered  in 
person  and  property,  or  even  deprived  of  the  hope  of 
royal  patronage  and  official  situation,  would  have  thrown 
a  heavy  weight  into  the  Jacobite  scale.  He,  upon  these 
principles,  employed  several  persons  who  had  been  active 
enforcers  of  King  James's  rigorous  measures,  and  whom 
the  Cameronians  accounted  God's  enemies  and  their  own, 
arid  deemed  more  deserving  of  retaliation  than  encour- 
agement and  employment. 

In  church  affairs,  King  William's  measures  were  still 
less  likely  to  be  pleasing  to  these  fierce  enthusiasts.  He 
was  contented  that  there  should  be  in  Scotland,  as  in 
Holland,  a  national  church,  and  that  the  form  should  be 
Presbyterian.  But  he  was  decided  in  opinion  that  this 
church  should  have  no  power  either  over  the  persons  or 
consciences  of  those  who  were  of  different  communions, 
to  whom  he  extended  a  general  toleration,  from  which  the 
Catholics  alone  were  excluded,  owing  to  the  terror  inspir- 
ed by  their  late  strides  to  predominant  superiority.  The 
wisest,  the  most  prudent,  and  the  most  learned  of  the 
Presbyterian  ministers,  those  chiefly  who,  having  fled 
from  Scotland  and  resided  in  the  Netherlands,  had  been 
enligitened  on  this  subject  of  toleration,  were  willingly 


TOLERANT    MliASUHKS    OF    WILLIAM.  145 

Disposed  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the  King's  incli- 
nation. 

But  wise  and  moderate  opinions  had  no  effect  on  the 
more  stuhborn  Presbyterians,  who,  irritated  at  the  Kirk's 
being  curbed  of  her  supreme  power,  and  themselves 
checked  in  the  course  of  their  vengeance,  accounted  the 
»nodel  of  King  William's  ecclesiastical  government  in  an 
Erastian  establishment,  in  which  the  dignity  of  the  church 
was  rendered  subordinate  to  that  of  die  state.  There 
were  many  divines  even  within  the  pale  of  the  church, 
whose  opinions  tended  to  this  point,  and  who  formed  a 
powerful  party  in  the  General  Assembly.  But  the  Cam- 
eronians  in  particular,  elated  with  the  part,  both  in  suffering 
and  acting,  which  they  had  performed  during  the  late  times, 
considered  the  results  of  the  Revolution  as  totally  unwor- 
thy of  the  struggle  which  they  had  maintained.  The  min- 
isters who  were  willing  to  acquiesce  in  a  model  of  church 
government  so  mutilated  in  power  and  beauty,  they  termed 
a  hive  of  lukewarm,  indifferent  shepherds,  who  had  either 
deserted  their  flocks  and  fled,  to  save  themselves  during 
the  rage  of  persecution,  or  who,  remaining  in  Scotland, 
had  truckled  to  the  enemy,  and  exercised  their  ministry 
in  virtue  of  a  niggardly  indulgence  from  the  tyrant,  whilst 
they  themselves  endured  want  and  misery,  and  the  ex- 
tremities of  the  sword  and  gallows,  rather  than  renounce 
one  iota  of  the  doctrine  held  by  the  Presbyterian  Kirk  of 
Scotland  in  the  time  of  her  highest  power.  They  con- 
sidered the  General  Assembly  held  under  the  authority  of 
King  William,  as  an  association  in  which  the  black  hand 
of  defection  was  extended  to  the  red  hand  of  persecution, 
and  where  apostates  and  oppressors,  leagued  together, 
made  common  cause  against  pure  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment and  discipline. 

Feeling  thus  indisposed  towards  the  existing  govern- 
ment, it  followed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  Came- 
ronians,  if  they  did  not  esteem  themselves  actually  called 
upon  to  resist  King  William's  authority,  from  which  they 
were  withheld  by  some  glimmering  of  common  sense,— 


146  THE    CAM  K  RON  I  AN    REGIMENT. 

tvhich  suggested,  as  the  necessary  consequence,  the  .eturn 
of  their  old  enemy  James, — neither  did  they  feel  at  lib- 
erty to  own  themselves  his  subjects,  to  take  oaths  of  al- 
legiance to  his  person  and  that  of  his  queen,  or  to  submit 
themselves,  by  any  mark  of  homage,  to  a  sovereign,  who 
had  not  subscribed  and  sworn  to  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant. 

Although,  therefore,  this  extreme  party  differed  among 
themselves,  to  what  extent  they  should  disclaim  the  King 
and  the  government,  yet  the  general  sense  of  their  united 
societies  became  more  and  more  scrupulous,  concerning 
the  lawfulness  of  serving  in  the  Earl  of  Angus's  regiment ; 
and  while  they  continued  to  own  these  soldiers  as  breth- 
ren, and  hold  correspondence  with  them,  we  observe 
that  they  hint  at  the  introduction  of  some  of  the  errors  of 
the  time,  even  into  this  select  regiment.  Card-playing, 
dice,  and  other  scandalous  games,  but  ,'n  particular  the 
celebration  of  King  William's  birthday,  by  rejoicing  and 
drinking  of  healths,  greatly  afflicted  the  spirit  of  the  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  more  rigorous  of  the  party,  who  held 
such  practices  as  an  abomination.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  the  regiment  of  Cameronians  received  from  this 
time  few  recruits  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  party  whose 
name  they  bore. 

They  were  afterwards  sent  to  serve  on  the  Continent, 
and  behaved  courageously  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Stein- 
kirk,  in  1692,  where  they  lost  many  men,  and  amongst 
others,  their  colonel,  the  Earl  of  Angus,  who  fell  fighting 
bravely  at  their  head.  During  these  campaigns  the  reg- 
iment became  gradually  more  indifferent  to  their  religious 
professions.  At  last,  we  learn  that  their  chaplain  and  they 
became  heartily  weary  of  each  other,  and  that  while  the 
preacher  upbraided  his  military  flock  with  departing  from 
the  strictness  of  their  religious  professions,  the  others  are 
said  to  have  cursed  him  to  his  face,  for  having  been  instru- 
mental in  inducing  them  to  enter  into  the  service.  In 
alter  times  this  regiment,  which  is  still  called  the  26th, 
or  Cameronian  regiment,  seems  to  have  differed  very  little 
in  its  composition  from  other  mnrrhing  regiments,  except- 


THF.    CAMKRON1AN    IlEGIMKNT.  147 

ing  that  it  Jvas  chiefly  recruited  in  Scotland,  and  tl.at,  in 
memory  of  the  original  principles  of  the  sect  out  of  which 
it  was  raised,  each  soldier  was,  and  perhaps  is  still,  oblig- 
ed  to  show  himself  possessed  of  a  Bible  when  his  neces- 
saries are  inspected. 

During  the  course  of  the  winter  1089-90,  King  James 
made  an  effort  to  reanimate  the  war  in  the  Highlands, 
which  had  almost  died  away,  after  the  repulse  of  the  High- 
landers at  Dunkeld.  He  sent  over  General  Buchan,  an 
officer  of  reputation,  and  who  was  supposed  to  understand 
Highland  character,  and  Highland  warfare.  The  clans 
again  assembled  with  renewed  hopes.  But  Buchan  prov- 
ed as  incapable  as  Cannon  had  shown  himself  the  year  be- 
fore, of  profiting  by  the  ardour  of  the  Highlanders. 

With  singular  want  of  caution,  the  Jacobite  General 
descended  the  Spey,  as  far  as  a  place  called  Cromdale, 
where  he  quartered  his  army,  about  eighteen  hundred 
men,  in  the  hamlets  in  the  vicinity.  Sir  Thomas  Living- 
stone, an  excellent  old  officer,  who  commanded  on  the 
part  of  King  William,  crossed  the  Spey  with  a  large 
force  of  cavalry,  some  infantry,  and  a  body  of  the  clan 
Grant,  who  had  embraced  William's  interest,  and  by  a 
night  attack  completely  surprised  Buchan  and  his  army  in 
their  quarters.  They  fought  gallantly,  notwithstanding, 
with  their  swords  and  targets,  but  were  at  length  compel- 
led to  take  to  flight.  The  pursuit  was  not  so  destructive 
to  the  defeated  party  as  it  would  have  been  to  the  soldiers 
of  any  other  nation,  if  pursued  by  the  cavalry  of  a  success- 
ful enemy.  Light  of  foot,  and  \?ell  acquainted  with  their 
own  mountains,  the  Highlanders  escaped  up  the  hills,  and 
amongst  the  mists,  with  such  an  appearance  of  ease  and 
agility,  that  a  spectator  observed,  they  looked  more  like 
men  received  into  the  clouds,  than  fugitives  escaping  from 
a  victorious  enemy. 

But  the  skirmish  of  Cromdale,  and  the  ruin  of  King 
James  s  affairs  in  Ireland,  precluded  all  hopes  on  the  pan 
of  the  Jacobites,  of  bringing  the  Highland  war  to  a  suc- 
cessful termination.  A  fort  near  Jnverlochy,  originally 
erected  by  Cromwell,  was  ngain  repaired  by  Livingsioue 


148  PACIFICATION     OF 

and  acquired  the  name  of  Fort  William,  and  was  strongly 
garrisoned,  to  bridle  the  Camerons.  MacDonaids,  and  the 
other  Jacobite  clans.  The  chiefs  saw  they  would  be  re- 
duced to  maintain  a  defensive  war  in  their  own  fastness- 
es, and  that  against  the  whole  regular  force  of  Scotland. 
They  became  desirous,  therefore,  of  submitting  for  the 
present,  and  reserving  their  efforts  in  favour  of  the  exiled 
family  for  some  more  favourable  time.  King  William 
was  equally  desirous  to  see  this  smouldering  fire,  which 
the  appearance  of  such  a  General  as  Montrose  or  Dundee 
might  soon  have  blown  into  a  destructive  flame,  totally 
extinguished.  For  this  purpose,  he  had  recourse  to  a 
measure,  which,  had  it  been  duly  executed,  was  one  ol 
deep  policy. 

The  Earl  of  Breadalbane,  a  man  of  great  power  in  the 
Highlands,  and  head  of  a  numerous  clan  of  the  Camp- 
bells, was  intrusted  with  a  sum  of  money,  which  some  au- 
thors call  20,  and  some  12,000  pounds,  to  be  distributed 
among  the  chieftains,  on  the  condition  of  their  submission 
to  the  existing  government,  and  keeping  on  foot,  each 
chief  in  proportion  to  his  means,  a  military  force  to  act  on 
behalf  of  government,  at  home  or  abroad,  as  they  should 
be  called  on.  This  scheme  would  probably  have  render- 
ed the  Highland  clans  a  resource,  instead  of  a  terror,  to 
the  government  of  King  William  ;  while  their  love  of 
war,  and  their  want  of  money,  would  by  degrees  have 
weaned  them  from  their  attachment  to  the  exiled  King, 
which  would  gradually  have  been  transferred  to  a  prince 
who  led  them  to  battle,  and  paid  them  for  following  him. 

But  many  of  the  chiefs  were  jealous  of  the  conduct  ol 
the  Earl  of  Breadalbane  in  distributing  the  funds  intrust- 
ed to  his  care.  Part  of  this  treasure  the  wily  Earl  be- 
stowed among  the  most  leading  men  ;  when  these  were 
bought  off,  he  intimidated  those  of  less  power  into  sub- 
mission, by  threatening  them  with  military  execution  t 
and  it  has  always  been  said,  that  he  retained  a  considera- 
ole  portion  of  the  gratuity  in  his  own  hands.  The  High- 
land chiefs  complained  to  Government  of  Breadalbane  s 
conduct,  who,  they  alleged,  had  advised  them  only  tc 


THE    HIGHLANDS.  149 

submit  to  King  William  for  the  present,  until  an  opportu- 
nity should  occur  of  doing  King  James  effectual  service. 
They  also  charged  him  with  retaining,  for  his  own  pur- 
poses, a  considerable  part  of  the  money  deposited  iu  his 
hands,  as  the  price  of  peace. 

Government,  it  is  said,  attended  to  this  information,  so 
far  as  to  demand,  through  the  Secretary  of  State,  a  regular 
account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  sum  of  money  plac- 
ed in  his  hands  had  been  distributed.  But  Breadalbane, 
too  powerful  to  be  called  in  question,  and  too  audacious 
to  care  for  suspicion  of  what  he  judged  Government 
dared  not  resent,  is  traditionally  said  to  have  answered  the 
demand  in  the  following  cavalier  manner  : — "  My  dear 
Lord,  The  money  you  mention,  was  given  to  purchase 
the  peace  of  the  Highlands.  The  money  is  spent — the 
Highlands  are  quiet,  and  this  is  the  only  way  of  accompt- 
ing  among  friends." 

We  shall  find  afterwards,  that  the  selfish  avarice,  and 
resentment  of  this  unprincipled  nobleman,  gave  rise  to  one 
of  the  most  bloody,  treacherous,  and  cruel  actions,  which 
dishonour  the  seventeenth  century.  Of  this  we  shall  speak 
hereafter  ;  at  present,  it  is  enough  to  repeat,  that  Bread- 
albane bribed,  soothed,  or  threatened  into  submission  to 
the  government,  all  the  chiefs  who  had  hitherto  embraced 
the  interest  of  King  James,  and  the  Highland  war  might 
be  considered  as  nearly,  if  not  entirely  ended.  But  the 
proposed  measure,  designed  to  have  attached  them  una- 
lienably  to  the  cause  of  King  William,  was  totally  discon- 
certed, and  the  Highlanders  continued  as  much  Jacobite? 
at  heart  as  before  the  pacification. 

There  remained,  however,  after  the  Highlands  were 
thus  partially  settled,  some  necessity  of  providing  for  the 
numerous  Lowland  officers  who  had  joined  the  standard 
of  Dundee,  and  afterwards  remained  with  his  less  able 
successors  in  command.  These  individuals  were  entitled 
t(_  consideration  and  compassion.  They  amounted  to 
nearly  a  hundred  gentlemen,  who,  sacrificing  their  fortune 
to  their  honour,  preferred  following  their  old  master  into 


150  JACOBITE    OFFICERS. 

exile,  to  changing  his  service  for  that  of  anotlu  r.  li  was 
stipulated  that  they  should  have  two  ships  to  cairy  them  to 
France,  where  they  were  received  with  the  same  liberal 
hospitality  which  Louis  XIV.  showed  in  whatever  con- 
cerned the  affairs  of  King  James,  and  where,  accordingly, 
they  received  for  some  time  pay  and  subsistence,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  rank  which  they  had  severally  enjoyed  in 
the  exiled  King's  service. 

But  when  the  battle  of  La  Hogue  had  commenced  the 
train  of  misfortunes  which  France  afterwards  experienced, 
and  put  a  period  to  all  hopes  of  invading  England,  it  could 
not  be  expected  that  Louis  should  continue  the  expense 
of  supporting  this  body  of  officers,  whom  there  was  now 
so  little  prospect  of  providing  for  in  their  own  country. 
They,  therefore,  petitioned  King  James  to  permit  them 
to  reduce  themselves  to  a  company  of  private  soldiers, 
with  the  dress,  pay,  and  appointments  of  that  rank,  assur- 
ing his  Majesty,  that  they  would  esteem  it  a  pleasure  to 
continue  in  his  service,  even  under  the  meanest  circum- 
stances, and  the  greatest  hardships. 

James  reluctantly  accepted  of  this  generous  offer,  and, 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  reviewed  this  body  of  devoted  loy- 
alists, as,  stript  of  the  advantages  of  birth,  fortune,  and 
education,  they  prepared  to  take  upon  them  the  duties  of 
the  lowest  rank  in  their  profession.  He  gave  every  man 
his  hand  to  kiss, — promised  never  to  forget  their  loyalty, 
and  wrote  the  name  of  each  individual  in  his  pocket-book, 
as  a  pledge,  that  when  his  own  fortune  permitted,  he  would 
not  be  unmindful  of  their  fidelity. 

Being  in  French  pay,  this  company  of  gentlemen  were 
of  course  engaged  in  the  French  service  ;  and  wl  erever 
they  came,  they  gained  respect  by  their  propriety  of  be- 
haviour, and  sympathy  from  knowledge  of  their  circum- 
stances. But  their  allowance,  being  only  threepence 
a-day,  with  a  pound  and  a  half  of  bread,  was  totally  inad- 
equate not  only  for  procuring  their  accustomed  comforts, 
but  even  for  maintaining  them  in  the  most  ordinary  man- 
ner. For  a  time,  they  found  a  resource  in  the  sale  oJ 
watches,  rings,  and  such  superfluous  trinkets  as  had  any 


JACOBITE   OFFICERS.  151 

value.  It  was  not  unusual  to  see  individuals  among 
them  laying  aside  some  little  token  of  remembrance, 
which  had  been  the  gift  of  parental  affection,  of  love,  or 
of  friendship,  and  to  hear  them  protest,  that  with  this 
at  least  they  would  never  part.  But  stern  necessity 
brought  all  these  relics  to  the  market  at  last,  and  this 
little  fund  of  support  was  entirely  exhausted. 

About  this  time  the  Company  served  under  Marshal 
Noailles,  at  the  siege  of  Rosas,  in  Catalonia,  and  dis- 
tinguished themselves  by  their  courage  on  so  many  oc- 
casions, that  their  general  called  them  his  children; 
and  pointing  out  their  determined  courage  to  others, 
used  to  say,  that  the  real  gentleman  was  ever  the  same, 
whether  in  necessity  or  in  danger. 

In  a  subsequent  campaign  in  Alsace,  this  company  of 
Scottish  officers  distinguished  themselves  by  their  volun- 
tary attempt  to  storm  a  fort  upon  an  island  on  the  Rhine, 
defended  by  five  hundred  Germans.  They  advanced  to 
the  shore  of  that  broad  river  under  shelter  of  the  night, 
waded  into  the  stream,  with  their  ammunition  about  their 
neck,  and  linked  arm-in-arm,  according  to  the  Highland 
fashion.  In  the  middle  of  the  current  the  water  was  up 
to  their  breasts,  but  as  soon  as  it  grew  more  shallow,  they  ' 
untied  their  cartouch-boxes,  and  marching  with  their 
muskets  shouldered,  poured  a  deadly  volley  upon  the 
Germans,  who,  seized  with  a  panic,  and  endeavouring  to 
escape,  broke  down  their  own  bridges,  and  suffered  se- 
vere loss,  leaving  the  island  in  possession  of  the  brave 
assailants.  When  the  French  general  heard  of  the  suc- 
cess of  what  he  had  esteemed  a  desperate  bravado,  he 
signed  himself  with  the  cross  in  astonishment,  and  de- 
clared that  it  was  the  boldest  action  that  ever  had  been 
performed,  and  that  the*  whole  honour  of  contrivance  arid 
execution  belonged  to  the  company  of  officers.  The 
place  was  long  called  L'Isle  d'Ecossois,  the  Scottish- 
men's  Island,  and  perhaps  yet  retains  the  name. 

In  these  and  similar  undertakings,  many  of  this  little 
band  fell  by  the  sword ;  but  their  fate  was  enviable  com- 
pared with  that  of  those  who  died  under  the  influence  of 


152  JACOBITE    OPFICKKB. 

fatigue,  privations,  and  contagious  diseases,  which  fell 
with  deadly  severity  on  men  once  accustomed  to  the  de- 
cency and  accommodations  of  social  life,  and  now  reduc- 
ed to  rags,  filth,  and  famine.  When  at  the  peace  of  Rys- 
wick,  this  little  company  was  disbanded,  there  remained 
out  sixteen  men  out  of  their  original  number  ;  and  few 
of  these  ever  again  saw  the  country,  whose  fame  had  been 
sustained  and  extended  by  their  fidelity  and  courage. 

At  length  the  last  faint  embers  of  civil  war  died  away 
throughout  Scotland.  The  last  place  which  held  out  for 
King  James  was  the  strong  island  and  castle  in  the  Frith 
of  Forth,  called  the  Bass.  This  singular  rock  rises  per- 
pendicularly out  of  the  sea.  The  surface  is  pasture  land, 
sloping  to  the  brink  of  a  tremendous  precipice,  which  on 
all  sides  sinks  sheer  down  into  the  stormy  ocean.  There 
is  no  anchorage  ground  on  any  point  ;  and  although  it  is 
possible,  in  the  present  state  of  the  island,  to  land,  (not 
without  danger,  however,)  and  to  ascend  by  a  steep  path 
to  the  table  land  on  the  top  of  the  crag,  yet  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  a  strong  castle  defended  the  entrance, 
and  the  boats  belonging  to  the  garrison  were  lowered  into 
the  sea,  or  heaved  up  into  the  castle,  by  means  of  the 
engine  called  a  crane.  Access  was  thus  difficult  to  friends 
and  impossible  to  enemies. 

This  sequestered  and  inaccessible  spot,  the  natural 
shelter  and  abode  of  gannets,  gulls,  and  sea-fowl  of  all 
descriptions  had  been,  as  I  have  before  noticed,  converted 
into  a  state  prison  during  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and 
James  II.  ;  and  was  often  the  melancholy  abode  of  the 
nonconformists,  who  were  prisoners  to  government.  The 
Governor  of  the  Bass  held  out  from  1688  to  1690,  when 
he  surrendered  to  King  William:  It  was  shortly  after 
recovered  for  King  James  by  some  Jacobite  officers, 
who,  sent  thither  as  prisoners,  contrived  to  surprise  and 
overpower  the  garrison,  and  again  bid  defiance  to  the  new 
government.  They  received  supplies  of  provisions  from 
their  Jacobite  friends  on  shore  and  exercised,-  by  means  of 
their  boats,  a  sort  of  privateering  warfare  on  such  mer- 
chant vessels  as  entered  the  Frith.  A  squadron  of  ships- 


SURRENDER    OF    THE    BASS.  153 

of-war  was  sent  to  reduce  the  place,  which,  in  their  at- 
tempt to  batter  the  Castle,  did  so  little  damage,  and  re- 
ceived so  much,  that  the  siege  was  given  up,  or  rather 
converted  into  a  strict  blockade.  The  punishment  ol 
death  was  denounced  by  the  Scottish  government  against 
all  who  should  attempt  to  supply  the  island  with  provis- 
ions ;  and  a  gentleman  named  Trotter,  having  been  con- 
victed of  such  an  attempt,  was  condemned  to  death,  and 
a  gallows  erected  opposite  the  Bass,  that  the  garrison  might 
witness  his  fate.  The  execution  was  interrupted  for  the 
time  by  a  cannon-shot  from  the  island,  to  the  great  terror 
of  the  assistants,  amongst  whom  the  bullet  lighted  ;  but  no 
advantage  accrued  to  Trotter,  who  was  put  to  death  else- 
where. The  intercourse  between  the  island  and  the  shore 
was  in  this  manner  entirely  cut  oil'.  Shortly  afterwards 
the  garrison  became  so  weak  for  want  of  provisions,  that 
they  were  unable  to  man  the  crane  by  which  they  launched 
out  and  got  in  their  boats.  They  were  thus  ohliged  finally 
to  surrender,  but  not  till  reduced  to  an  allowance  of  two 
ounces  of  rusk  to  each  man  per  day.  They  were  admit- 
ted to  honourable  terms,  with  the  testimony  of  having 
done  their  duty  like  brave  men. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  state  of  civil  affairs  in  Scot- 
land, which  was  far  from  being  settled.  The  arrange- 
ments of  King  William  had  not  included  in  his  adminis- 
stration  Sir  James  Montgomery  and  some  other  Presby- 
terians, who  conceived  their  services  entitled  them  to  such 
distinction.  This  was  bitterly  resented  ;  for  Montgomery 
and  his  friends  fell  into  an  error  very  common  to  agents 
in  great  changes,  who  often  conceive  themselves  to  have 
been  the  authors  of  those  events,  in  which  they  are  only 
the  subordinate  and  casual  actors.  Montgomery  had  con- 
ducted the  debates  concerning  the  forfeiture  of  the  crown 
at  the  Revolution,  and  therefore  believed  himself  adequate 
to  the  purpose  of  dethroning  King  William,  who,  he  thought, 
owed  his  crown  to  him,  and  of  replacing  King  James. 
This  monarch,  so  lately  deprived  of  his  realm  on  account 
of  his  barefaced  attempts  to  bring  in  Popery,  was  now 
supported  by  a  party  of  Presbyterians,  who  proposed  to 


J54  SETTLEMENT   OF    CHURCH    AFFAIRS. 

render  him  the  nursing  father  of  that  model  of  church 
government,  which  he  had  so  often  endeavoured  to  stifle 
jn  the  blood  of  its  adherents.  As  extremes  approach  to 
each  other,  the  most  violent  Jacobites  began  to  hold  inter- 
course with  the  most  violent  Presbyterians  and  both  par- 
ties voted  together  in  Parliament,  from  hatred  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  King  William.  The  alliance,  however, 
was  too  unnatural  to  continue  ;  and  King  William  was  only 
so  far  alarmed  by  its  progress,  as  to  hasten  a  redress  01 
several  of  those  grievances,  which  had  been  pointed  out 
in  the  Declaration  of  Rights.  He  also  deemed  it  prudent 
to  concede  something  to  the  Presbyterians,  disappointed 
as  many  of  them  were  with  the  result  of  the  Revolution  in 
ecclesiastical  matters. 

I  have  told  you  already  that  King  William  had  not  hes- 
itated to  declare  that  the  National  Church  of  Scotland 
should  be  Presbyterian  ;  but,  with  the  love  of  toleration, 
which  was  a  vital  principle  in  the  King's  mind,  he  was 
desirous  of  permitting  the  Episcopal  incumbents,  as  well 
as  the  forms  of  worship,  to  remain  in  the  churches  of  such 
parishes  as  preferred  that  communion.  Moreover,  he 
did  not  deem  it  equitable  to  take  from  such  proprietors 
as  were  possessed  of  it,  the  right  of  patronage,  that  is,  of 
presenting  to  the  presbytery  a  candidate  for  a  vacant 
charge  ;  when,  unless  found  unfit  for  such  a  charge,  upon 
his  life  and  doctrine  being  inquired  into  by  formal  trial, 
the  person  thus  presented  was  of  course  admitted  to  the 


A  great  part  of  the  Presbyterians  were  much  discon- 
tented at  a  privilege,  which  threw  the  right  of  electing  a 
clergyman  for  the  whole  congregation  into  the  hands  of 
one  man,  whilst  all  the  rest  might  be  dissatisfied  with  his 
talents,  or  with  his  character.  They  argued  also,  that 
very  many  of  these  presentations  being  in  the  hands  of 
gentry  of  the  Episcopal  persuasion,  to  continue  the  right 
of  patronage,  was  to  afford  such  patrons  the  means  of  in- 
troducing clergymen  of  their  own  tenets,  and  thus  to  main- 
tain a  perpetual  schism  in  the  bosom  of  the  church.  To 
this  it  was  replied  by  the  defenders  of  patronage  that  as 


THE    ASSURANCE.  153 

the  stipends  of  the  clergy  were  paid  by  the  landholders, 
the  nomination  of  the  minister  ought  to  be  left  in  theif 
hands  ;  and  that  it  had  accordingly  been  the  ancient  law 
of  Scotland,  that  the  advovvson,  or  title  to  bestow  the 
church  living,  was  a  right  of  private  property.  The  ten- 
dency towards  Episcopacy,  continued  these  reasoners, 
might  indeed  balance,  but  could  not  overthrow,  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Presbyterian  establishment,  since  every 
clergyman  who  was  in  possession  of  a  living,  was  bound 
to  suscribe  the  Confession  of  Faith,  as  established  by  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster,  and  to  acknowledge 
that  the  General  Assembly  was  invested  with  the  full  gov- 
ernment of  the  church.  They  further  argued,  that  in 
practice  it  was  best  this  law  of  patronage  should  remain 
unaltered.  The  Presbyterian  church  being  already  form- 
ed upon  a  model  strictly  republican,  they  contended,  that 
to  vest  the  right  of  nominating  the  established  clergy  in  the 
hearers,  was  to  give  additional  features  of  democracy  to  a 
system,  which  was  already  sufficiently  independent  both 
of  the  crown  and  the  aristocracy.  They  urged,  that  to 
permit  the  flocks  the  choice  of  their  own  sLepherd,  was 
to  encourage  the  candidates  for  church  preferment  rather 
to  render  themselves  popular  by  preaching  to  sooth  the 
humours  of  the  congregation,  than  to  exercise  the  whole- 
some but  unpleasing  duties,  of  instructing  their  ignorance, 
and  reproving  their  faults  ;  and  that  thus  assentation  and 
flattery  would  be  heard  from  the  pulpit,  the  very  place 
where  they  were,  most  unbecoming,  and  were  likely  to  be 
most  mischievous. 

Such  arguments  in  favour  of  lay  patronage  had  much 
influence  with  the  King  ;  but  the  necessity  of  doing  some- 
thing which  might  please  the  Presbyterian  party,  induced 
his  Scottish  ministers, — not,  it  is  said,  with  William's  en- 
tire approbation, — to  renew  a  law  of  Cromwell's  time 
which  placed  the  nomination  of  a  minister,  with  some  slight 
restrictions,  in  the  hands  of  the  congregation.  These, 
upon  a  vacancy,  exercised  a  right  of  popular  election,  grat- 
ifying unquestionably  to  the  pride  of  human  nature,  but 
tending  to  excite,  in  the  case  of  disagreement,  debates 


156  THE    ASSURANCE. 

and  strife,  which  were  not  always  managed  with  the  de- 
cency and  moderation  that  the  subject  required. 

King  William  equally  failed  in  his  attempt  to  secure  tol- 
eration for  such  of  the  Episcopal  clergy,  as  were  disposed 
to  retain  their  livings  under  a  Presbyterian  supremacy. 
To  have  gained  these  divines,  would  have  greatly  influ- 
enced all  that  part  of  Scotland  which  lies  to  the  north  01 
the  Forth  ;  but  in  affording  them  protection,  William  was 
desirous  to  be  secured  of  their  allegiance,  which  in  gen- 
eral they  conceived  to  be  due  to  the  exiled  sovereign. 
Many  of  them  had  indeed  adopted  a  convenient  political 
creed,  which  permitted  them  to  submit  to  William  as  King 
de  facto,  that  is,  as  being  actually  in  possession  of  the  royal 
power,  whilst  they  internally  reserved  the  claims  of  James 
as  King  de  jure,  that  is,  who  had  the  right  to  the  crown, 
although  he  did  not  enjoy  it. 

It  was  William's  interest  to  destroy  this  sophistical  spe- 
cies of  reasoning,  by  which,  in  truth,  he  was  only  recog- 
nised as  a  successful  usurper,  and  obeyed  for  no  othei 
reason  but  because  he  had  the  power  to  enforce  obedience. 
An  oath,  therefore,  was  framed,  called  the  Assurance, 
which,  being  put  to  all  persons  holding  offices  of  trust, 
was  calculated  to  exclude  those  temporizers  who  had  con- 
trived to  reconcile  their  immediate  obedience  to  King 
William,  with  a  reserved  acknowledgement,  that  James 
possessed  the  real  right  to  the  crown.  The  Assurance 
bore,  in  language  studiously  explicit,  that  King  William 
was  acknowledged,  by  the  person  taking  the  oath,  not  only 
as  King  in  fact,  but  also  as  King  in  law  and  by  just  title. 
This  oath  made  a  barrier  against  most  of  the  Episcopal 
preachers  who  had  any  tendency  to  Jacobitism  ;  but  there 
were  some  who  regarded  their  own  patrimonial  advanta- 
ges more  than  political  questions  concerning  the  rights  of 
monarchs,  and  in  spite  of  the  intolerance  of  the  Presby- 
terian clergy,  (which,  considering  their  previous  sufferings, 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at,)  about  a  hundred  Episcopal 
divines  took  the  oaths  to  the  new  government,  retained 
their  livings,  and  were  exempted  from  the  jurisdiction  oi 
the  courts  of  Presbytery. 


THE    MASSACRE    OF    GIENCOK.  16" 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Massacre  of  Gler.coe. 

I  AM  now  to  call  your  attention  to  an  action  rf  the  Scot- 
tish government,  which  leaves  a  stain  on  the  memory  ol 
King  William  ;  although  he  probably  was  not  aware  of  the 
full  extent  of  the  -baseness,  treachery,  and  cruelty,  for 
which  his  commission  was  made  a  cover. 

I  have  formerly  mentioned,  that  some  disputes  arose 
concerning  the  distribution  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  with 
which  the  Earl  of  Breadalbane  was  intrusted,  to  procure, 
or  rather  to  purchase,  a  peace  in  the  Highlands.  Lord 
Breadalbane  and  those  with  whom  he  negotiated  disa- 
greed, and  the  English  government,  becoming  suspicious 
of  the  intentions  of  the  Highland  chiefs  to  play  fast  and 
loose  on  the  occasion,  sent  forth  a  proclamation  in  the 
month  of  August  1691,  requiring  them,  and  each  of  them, 
to  submit  to  government  before  the  first  day  of  January 
1692.  After  this  period,  it  was  announced  that  those 
who  had  not  submitted  themselves,  should  be  subjected  to 
the  extremities  of  fire  and  sword. 

This  proclamation  was  framed  by  the  Privy  Council, 
under  the  influence  of  Sir  John  Dairy rnple,  (Master  ol 
Stair,  as  he  was  called,)  whom  I  have  already  mentioned 
as  holding  the  place  of  Lord  Advocate,  and  who  had  in 
1690  been  raised  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  in  conjunction 
with  Lord  Melville.  The  Master  of  Stair  was  at  this 
time  an  intimate  friend  of  Breadalbane,  and  it  seems  that 
he  shared  with  that  nobleman  the  warm  hope  and  expec- 
tation of  carrying  into  execution  a  plan  of  retaining  a 
Highland  army  in  the  pay  of  Government,  and  accom- 
plishing a  complete  transference  of  the  allegiance  of  the 
chiefs  to  the  person  of  King  William.  This  could  not 


158  MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE 

have  fti  led  to  be  a  most  acceptable  piece  of  service,  upoc 
which,  if  it  could  be  accomplished,  the  Secretary  might 
justly  reckon  as  a  title  to  his  master's  further  confidence 
and  favour. 

But  when  Breadalbane  commenced  his  treaty,  he  was 
mortified  to  find,  that,  though  the  Highland  chiefs  express- 
ed no  dislike *to  King  William's  money,  yet  they  retained 
their  secret  fidelity  to  King  James  too  strongly  to  make  it 
safe  to  assemble  them  in  a  military  body,  as  had  been 
proposed.  Many  chiefs,  especially  those  of  the  Mac- 
Donalds,  stood  out  also  for  terms,  which  the  Earl  of 
Breadalbane  and  the  Master  of  Stair  considered  as  ex- 
travagant ;  and. the  result  of  the  whole  was,  the  breaking 
off  the  treaty,  and  the  publishing  of  the  severe  proclama- 
tion already  mentioned. 

Breadalbane  and  Stair  were  greatly  disappointed  and 
irritated  against  those  chiefs  and  tribes,  who,  being  re- 
fractory on  this  occasion,  had  caused  a  breach  of  their 
favourite  scheme.  Their  thoughts  were  now  turned  to 
revenge  ;  and  it  appears  from  Stair's  correspondence,  that 
he  nourished  and  dwelt  upon  the  secret  hope,  that  several 
of  the  most  stubborn  chiefs  would  hold  out  beyond  the 
term  appointed  for  submission,  in  which  case  it  was  de- 
termined that  the  punishment  inflicted  should  be  of  the 
most  severe  and  awful  description.  That  all  might  be 
in  readiness  for  the  meditated  operations,  a  considerable 
body  of  troops  were  kept  in  readiness  at  Inverlochy,  and 
elsewhere.  These  were  destined  to  act  against  the  re- 
fractory clans,  and  the  campaign  was  to  take  place  in  the 
midst  of  winter  when  it  was  supposed  that  the  season  and 
weather  would  prevent  the  Highlanders  from  expecting  an 
attack. 

But  the  chiefs  received  information  of  these  hostile 
intentions,  and  one  by  one  submitted  to  government  within 
ihe  appointed  period,  thus  taking  away  all  pretence  of 
acting  against  them.  It  is  said  that  they  did  so  by  secret 
orders  from  King  James,  who  having  penetrated  the  de- 
signs of  Stair,  directed  the  chiefs  to  comply  with  the 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  159 

proclamation,  rather  than  incur  an  attack  which  they  had 
no  means  of  resisting. 

The  indemnity  ;  which  protected  so  many  victims,  and 
excluded  both  lawyers  and  soldiers  from  a  profitable  job. 
seems  to  have  created  great  disturbance  in  the  mind  ol 
the  Secretary  of  State.  As  chief  after  chief  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  King  William,  and  one  by  one  put 
themselves  out  of  danger,  the  greater  became  the  anxiety 
of  the  Master  of  Stair  to  find  some  legal  flaw  for  exclud- 
ing some  of  the  Lochaber  clans  from  the  benefit  of  the 
indemnity.  But  no  opportunity  occurred  for  exercising 
these  kind  intentions,  excepting  in  the  memorable,  but 
fortunately  the  solitary  instance,  of  the  clan  of  the  Mac- 
Donalds  of  Glencoe. 

This  clan  inhabited  a  valley  formed  by  the  river  Coe, 
which  falls  into  Lochleven  not  far  from  the  head  of  Loch- 
Etive.  It  is  distinguished  even  in  that  wild  country  by 
the  sublimity  of  the  mountains,  rocks  and  precipices,  in 
which  it  lies  buried.  The  minds  of  men  are  formed  by 
their  habitations.  The  MacDonalds  of  the  Glen  were 
not  very  numerous,  seldom  mustering  above  two  hundred 
armed  men  ;  but  they  were  bold  and  daring  to  a  proverb, 
confident  in  the  strength  of  their  country,  and  in  the  pro- 
tection and  support  of  their  kindred  tribes,  the  MacDon- 
alds of  Clanranald,  Glengarry,  Keppoch,  Ardnamurchan, 
and  others  of  that  powerful  name.  They  also  lay  near 
the  possessions  of  the  Campbells,  to  whom,  owing  to  the 
predatory  habits  to  which  they  were  especially  addicted, 
they  were  very  bad  neighbours,  so  that  blood  had  at  dif- 
ferent times  been  spilt  between  them. 

Maclan  of  Glencoe  (this  was  the  patronymic  title  of 
the  chief  of  this  clan)  was  a  man  of  a  stately  and  vene- 
rable person  and  aspect.  He  possessed  both  courage  and 
sagacity,  and  was  accustomed  to  be  listened  to  by  the 
neighbouring  chieftains,  and  to  take  a  lead  in  their  delibe- 
rations. Maclan  had  been  deeply  engaged  both  in  the 
campaign  of  Killiecrankie,  and  in  that  which  followed 
imder  General  Buchan  ;  and  when  the  insurgent  Highland 
chiefs  held  a  meeting  with  the  Earl  of  Breadalbane,  at  a 


160  MASSACUK    OF    GLENCOK. 

place  calied  Auchallader,  in  the  month  of  July  1691,  fci 
the  purpose  of  arranging  an  armistice,  Mac  I  an  was  pres- 
ent with  the  rest,  and,  it  is  said,  taxed  Breadalbane  with 
the  design  of  retaining  a  part  of  the  money  lodged  in  his 
hands  for  the  pacification  of  the  Highlands.  The  Ear) 
retorted  with  vehemence,  and  charged  Maclan  with  a 
theft  of  cattle,  committed  upon  some  of  his  lands  by  a  party 
from  Glencoe.  Other  causes  of  offence  took  place,  in 
which  old  feuds  were  called  to  recollection  ;  and  Maclan 
was  repeatedly  heard  to  say,  he  dreaded  mischief  from 
no  man  so  much  as  the  Earl  of  Breadalbane.  Yet  this 
unhappy  chief  was  rash  enough  to  stand  out  to  the  last 
moment,  and  decline  to  take  advantage  of  King  William's 
indemnity,  till  the  time  appointed  by  the  proclamation  was 
well-nigh  expired. 

The  displeasure  of  the  Earl  of  Breadalbane  seen's 
speedily  to  have  communicated  itself  to  the  Master  of 
Stair,  who,  in  his  correspondence  with  Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Hamilton,  commanding  in  the  Highlands,  expresses 
the  greatest  resentment  against  Maclan  of  Glencoe,  for 
having,  by  his  interference,  helped  to  mar  the  bargain  be- 
tween Breadalbane  and  the  Highland  chiefs.  Accord- 
ingly, in  a  letter  of  3d  December,  the  Secretary  intimated 
that  government  was  determined  to  destroy  utterly  some 
of  the  clans,  in  order  to  terrify  the  others,  and  that  he 
hoped  that,  by  standing  out  and  refusing  to  submit  under 
the  indemnity,  the  MacDonalds  of  Glencoe  would  fall  into 
the  net.  This  was  a  month  before  the  time  limited  by  the 
indemnity,  so  long  did  these  bloody  thoughts  occupy  the 
mind  of  this  unprincipled  statesman. 

Ere  the  term  of  mercy  expired,  however,  Maclari's 
own  apprehensions,  or  the  advice  of  friends,  dictated  to 
him  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  same  conditions 
which  others  had  embraced,  and  he  went  with  his  princi- 
pal followers  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  King  Wil- 
liam. This  was  a  very  brief  space  before  the  1st  of  Jan- 
nary,  when,  by  the  terms  of  the  proclamation  the  oppoi- 
tunity  of  claiming  the  indemnity  was  to  expire.  Maclan 
was,  therefore,  much  alarmed  to  find  that  Colonel  Hill 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  161 

ihe  governor  of  Fort  William,  to  whom  he  tendered  his 
oath  of  allegiance,  had  no  power  to  receive  it,  being  a 
military,  and  not  a  civil  officer.  Colonel  Hill,  however, 
had  sympathy  with  the  distress  and  even  tears  of  the  old 
chieftain,  and  gave  him  a  letter  to  Sir  Colin  Campbell  of 
Ardkinlas,  Sheriff  of  Argyleshire  requesting  him  to  re- 
ceive the  "  lost  sheep,"  and  administer  the  oath  to  him, 
that  he  might  have  the  advantage  of  the  indemnity,' though 
so  late  in  claiming  it. 

f  Maclan  hastened  from  Fort  William  to  Inverary,  with- 
out even  turning  aside  to  his  own  house,  though  he  passed 
within  a  mile  of  it.  But  the  roads,  always  very  bad,  were 
now  rendered  almost  impassable  by  a  storm  of  snow  ;  so 
that,  with  all  the  haste  which  the  unfortunate  chieftain 
could  exert,  the  fatal  1st  of  January  was  past  before  he 
reached  Inverary. 

The  Sheriff,  however,  seeing  that  Maclan  had  com- 
plied with  the  spirit  of  the  statute,  in  tendering  his  sub- 
mission within  the  given  period,  under  the  sincere,  though 
mistaken  belief,  that  he  was  applying  to  the  person  order- 
ed to  receive  it  ;  and  considering  also,  that,  but  for  the 
tempestuous  weather,  it  would  after  all  have  been  offered 
in  presence  of  the  proper  law-officer,  did  not  hesitate  to 
administer  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  sent  off  an  express 
to  the  Privy  Council,  containing  an  attestation  of  Mac- 
Jan's  having  taken  the  oaths,  and  a  full  explanation  of  the 
circumstances  which  had  delayed  his  doing  so  until  the 
lapse  of  the  appointed  period.  The  Sheriff  also  wrote 
to  Colonel  Hill  what  he  had  done,  and  requested  that  he 
would  take  care  that  Glencoe  should  not  be  annoyed  by 
any  military  parties  until  the  pleasure  of  the  Council 
should*  be  known,  which  he  could  not  doubt  would  be 
favourable. 

Maclan,  therefore,  returned  to  his  own  house,  and  re- 
sided there,  as  he  supposed,  in  safety,  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  government  to  which  he  had  sworn  allegiance. 
That  he  might  merit  this  protection,  he  convoked  his  clan, 
acquainted  them  with  his  submission  and  commanded 
17* 


162  MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE. 

them  to  live  peaceably,  and  give  no  cause  of  oflence,  im- 
ler  pain  of  his  displeasure. 

In  the  meantime,  the  vindictive  Secretary  of  State  had 
procured  orders  from  his  Sovereign  respecting  the  meas- 
ures to  be  followed  with  such  of  the  chiefs  as  should  not 
have  taken  the  oaths  within  the  term  prescribed.  The 
first  of  these  orders,  dated  1 1  th  January,  contained  pe- 
remptory directions  for  military  execution,  by  fire  and 
sword,  against  all  who  should  not  have  made  their  sub- 
mission within  the  time  appointed.  It  was,  however,  pro- 
vided, in  order  to  avoid  driving  them  to  desperation,  that 
there  was  still  to  remain  a  power  of  granting  mercy  to 
those  clans  who,  even  after  the  time  was  past,  should  still 
come  in  and  submit  themselves.  Such  were  the  terms 
of  the  first  royal  warrant,  in  which  Glencoe  was  not 
named. 

It  seems  afterwards  to  have  occurred  to  Stair,  that 
Glencoe  would  be  sheltered  under  this  mitigation  of  the 
intended  severities,  since  he  had  already  come  in  and  ten- 
dered his  allegiance,  without  waiting  for  the  menace  of 
military  force.  A  second  set  of  instructions  were  there- 
fore made  out  on  the  16th  January.  These  held  out  the 
same  indulgence  to  other  clans  who  should  submit  them- 
selves at  the  very  last  hour,  but  they  closed  the  gate  of 
mercy  against  the  devoted  Maclan,  who  had  already  done 
all  that  was  required  of  others.  The  words  are  remark- 
able : — "  As  for  Maclan  of  Glencoe,  and  that  tribe,  il 
they  can  be  well  distinguished  from  the  rest  of  the  High- 
landers, it  will  be  proper,  for  the  vindication  of  public 
justice,  to  extirpate  that  set  of  thieves." 

You  will  remark  the  hypocritical  clemency  and  real 
cruelty  of  these  instructions,  which  profess  a  readiness  to 
extend  mercy  to  those  who  needed  it  not.  (for  all  the 
other  Highlanders  had  submitted  within  the  limited  time,) 
and  deny  it  to  Glencoe,  the  only  man  who  had  not  been 
able  literally  to  comply  with  the  proclamation,  though  in 
all  fair  construction  he  had  done  what  it  required. 

Under  what  pretence  or  colouring  King  William's  au- 
tho"ity  was  obtained  for  such  cruel  instructions,  it  would 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  1G3 

be  in  vain  to  inquire.  The  Sheriff  of  Argyle's  letter  had 
never  been  produced  before  the  Council  ;  and  the  certifi- 
cate of  Marian's  having  taken  the  oath,  was  blotted  out, 
and,  in  the  Scottish  phrase,  deleted.  It  seems  probable 
lhat  the  fact  of  that  chief's  submission  was  altogether  con- 
cealed from  the  King,  and  that  he  was  held  out  in  the  light 
of  a  desperate  and  incorrigible  leader  of  banditti,  who  was 
the  main  obstacle  to  the  peace  of  the  Highlands  ;  but  ii 
we  admit  that  William  acted  under  such  misrepresenta- 
tions, deep  blame  will  still  attach  to  him  for  so  rashly 
issuing  orders  of  an  import  so  dreadful.  It  is  remarkable 
lhat  these  fatal  instructions  are  both  superscribed  and  sub- 
scribed by  the  King  himself,  whereas,  in  most  state  papers, 
the  sovereign  only  superscribes,  and  they  are  countersign- 
ed by  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  is  answerable  for  their 
tenor ;  a  responsibility  which  Stair,  on  that  occasion,  was 
not  probably  ambitious  of  claiming. 

The  Secretary's  letters  to  the  military  officers,  direct* 
ing  the  mode  of  executing  the  King's  orders,  betray  the 
deep  and  savage  interest  which  he  personally  took  in  their 
tenor,  and  his  desire  that  the  bloody  execution  should  be 
as  general  as  possible.  He  dwelt  in  these  letters  upon  the 
proper  time  and  season  for  cutting  off  the  devoted  tribe. 
"  The  winter,"  he  said,  "  is  the  only  season  in  which  the 
Highlanders  cannot  elude  us,  or  carry  their  wives,  chil- 
dren, and  cattle,  to  the  mountains.  They  cannot  escape 
you  ;  for  what  human  constitution  can  then  endure  to  be 
long  out  of  house  ?  This  is  the  proper  season  to  maul 
them,  in  the  long  dark  nights."  He  could  not  suppress 
his  joy  that  Glencoe  had  not  come  in  within  the  term  pre- 
scribed ;  and  expresses  his  hearty  wishes  that  others  had 
followed  the  same  course.  He  assured  the  soldiers  that 
yneir  powers  should  be  ample  ;  and  he  exacted  from  them 
proportional  exertions.  He  entreated  that  the  thieving 
tribe  of  Glencoe  be  rooted  out  in  earnest ;  and  he  was  at 
pains  to  explain  a  phrase  which  is  in  itself  terribly  signifi- 
cant. He  gave  directions  for  securing  every  pass  by  which 
the  victims  could  escape,  and  warned  the  soldiers  that  it 
were  bette-  to  leave  the  thing  unattempted,  than  fail  to  do 


164  MASSACRE    OF    GLKNCOE 

it  to  purpose.  "  To  plunder  their  lands,  or  drive  off  their 
cattle,  would,"  say  his  letters,  "  be  only  to  render  them 
desperate  ;  they  must  be  all  slaughtered,  and  the  manner 
of  execution  must  be  sure,  secret,  and  effectual." 

These  instructions,  such  as  have  been  rarely  penned  in 
a  Christian  country,  were  sent  to  Colonel  Hill,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Fort  William,  who,  greatly  surprised  and  grieved 
at  their  tenor,  endeavoured  for  some  time  to  evade  the 
execution  of  them.  At  length,  obliged  by  his  situation  to 
render  obedience  to  the  King's  commands,  he  transmitted 
the  orders  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Hamilton,  directing  him 
to  take  four  hundred  men  of  a  Highland  regiment  belong- 
ing to  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  and  fulfil  the  royal  mandate. 
Thus,  to  make  what  was  intended  yet  worse,  if  possible, 
than  it  was  in  its  whole  tenor,  the  execution  of  this  cruelt) 
was  committed  to  soldiers,  who  were  not  only  the  country- 
men of  the  proscribed  but  the  near  neighbours,  and  some 
of  them  the  close  connexions,  of  the  MacDonalds  of  Glen- 
coe.  This  is  the  more  necessary  to  be  remembered,  be- 
cause the  massacre  has  unjustly  been  said  to  have  been 
committed  by  English  troops.  The  course  of  the  execu- 
tion was  as  follows. 

Before  the  end  of  January,  a  party  of  the  Earl  of  Ar- 
gyle's  regiment,  commanded  by  Captain  Campbell  of 
Glenlyon,  approached  Glencoe.  jMadan's  sons  went  out 
to  meet  them  with  a  body  of  men,  to  demand  whether 
they  came  as  friends  or  foes.  The  officer  replied,  that 
they  came  as  friends,  being  sent  to  take  up  their  quarters 
for  a  short  time  in  Glencoe,  in  order  to  relieve  the  garri- 
son of  Fort  William,  which  was  crowded  with  soldiers. 
On  this  they  were  welcomed  with  all  the  hospitality  which 
the  chief  and  his  followers  had  the  means  of  extending  to 
them  and  they  resided  for  fifteen  days  amongst  the  un- 
suspecting MacDonalds,  in  the  exchange  of  every  species 
of  kindness  and  civility.  That  the  laws  of  domestic  af- 
fection might  be  violated  at  the  same  time  with  those  of 
humanity  and  hospitality,  you  are  to  understand  that  Alas- 
ter  MacDonald,  one  of  the  sons  of  Maclan,  was  married 
to  a  neice  of  Glenlyon,  who  commanded  the  part)  of 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  165 

soldiers.  It  appears  also,  that  the  intended  cruelty  was 
to  be  exercised  upon  defenceless  men  ;  for  the  MacDon- 
alds,  though  afraid  of  no  other  ill  treatment  from  their 
military  guests,  had  supposed  it  possible  the  soldiers  might 
have  a  commission  to  disarm  them,  and  therefore  had  sent 
their  weapons  to  a  distance,  where  they  might  be  out  of 
reach  of  seizure. 

Glenlyon's  party  had  remained  in  Glencoe  for  fourteen 
or  fifteen  days,  when  he  received  orders  from  his  com- 
manding officer,  Major  Duncanson,  expressed  in  a  manner, 
which  shows  him  to  have  been  the  worthy  agent  of  the 
cruel  Secretary.  They  were  sent  in  conformity  with 
orders  of  the  same  date,  transmitted  to  Duncanson  by 
Hamilton,  directing  that  all  the  MacDonalds,  under  seven- 
ty years  of  age,  were  to  be  cut  off,  and  that  the  govern- 
ment was  not  to  be  troubled  with  prisoners.  Duncanson's 
orders  to  Glenlyon  were  as  follows  : 

"  You  are  hereby  ordered  to  fall  upon  the  rebels,  and 
put  all  to  the  sword  under  seventy.  You  are  to  have 
especial  care  that  the  old  fox  and  his  cubs  do  on  no  ac- 
count escape  your  hands  :  you  are  to  secure  all  the  aven- 
ues, that  no  man  escape.  This  you  are  to  put  in  execution 
at  four  in  the  morning  precisely,  and  by  that  time  or  very 
shortly  after,  I  will  strive  to  be  at  you  with  a  stronger 
party.  But  if  I  do  not  come  to  you  at  four  you  are  not 
to  tarry  for  me,  but  fall  on.  This  is  by  the  King's  special 
command,  for  the  good  and  safety  of  the  country,  that 
these  miscreants  be  cut  off  root  and  branch.  See  that 
this  be  put  into  execution  without  either  fear  or  favour, 
else  you  may  expect  to  be  treated  as  not  true  to  the  King 
or  government,  nor  a  man  fit  to  carry  a  commission  in  tho 
King's  service.  Expecting  that  you  will  not  fail  in  the 
fulfilling  hereof,  as  you  love  yourself,  I  subscribe  these 
with  rny  hand,  ROBERT  DUNCANSON." 

This  order  was  dated  12th  February,  and  addressed, 
'  For  their  Majesties  service,  to  Captain  Robert  Camp 
bell  of  Glenlyon." 


166  MASSACRE    ON    GLENCOE. 

This  letter  reached  Glenlyon  soon  after  it  was  written  ; 
and  he  lost  nc  time  in  carrying  the  dreadful  mandate  into 
execution.  In  the  interval,  he  did  not  abstain  from  any 
of  tliose  acts  of  familiarity  which  had  lulled  asleep  the 
suspicions  of  his  victims,  he  took  his  morning  draught,  as 
on  every  former  day  since  he  came  to  the  Glen,  at  the 
house  of  Alaster  MacDonald,  Maclan's  second  son,  who 
was  married  to  his  (Glenlyon's)  niece.  He  and  two  ol 
his  officers  named  Lindsay,  accepted  an  invitation  to  din- 
ner from  Maclan  himself,  for  the  following  day,  on  which 
they  had  determined  he  should  never  see  the  sun  rise. 
To  complete  the  sum  of  treachery,  Glenlyon  played  at 
cards  in  his  own  quarters,  with  the  sons  of  Maclan,  John 
and  Alaster,  both  of  whom  were  also  destined  for  slaughter. 

About  four  o'clock,  in  the  morning  of  13th  February, 
the  scene  of  blood  began.  A  party  commanded  by  one 
of  the  Lindsays,  came  to  Maclan's  house  and  knocked 
for  admittance,  which  was  at  once  given.  Lindsay,  one 
of  the  expected  guests  at  the  family  meal  of  the  day, 
commanded  this  party,  who  instantly  shot  Maclan  dead 
by  his  own  bedside,  as  he  was  in  the  act  of  dressing  him- 
self, and  giving  orders  for  refreshments  to  be  provided  for 
his  fatal  visiters.  His  aged  wife  was  stript  by  the  savage 
soldiery,  who,  at  the  same  time,  drew  off  the  gold  rings 
from  her  fingers  with  their  teeth.  She  died  the  next  day, 
distracted  with  grief,  and  the  brutal  treatment  she  had 
received.  Several  domestics  and  clansmen  were  killed 
at  the  same  place. 

The  two  sons  of  the  aged  chieftain  had  not  been  alto- 
gether so  confident  as  their  father  of  the  peaceful  and 
friendly  purpose  of  their  guests.  They  observed,  on  the 
evening  preceding  the  massacre,  that  the  sentinels  were 
doubled,  and  the  mainguard  strengthened.  John,  the 
elder  brother,  had  even  heard  the  soldiers  muttering 
amongst  themselves,  that  they  cared  not  about  fighting  the 
men  of  the  Glen  fairly,  but  did  not  like  the  nature  of  the 
«e~vice  they  were  engaged  in  ;  while  others  consoled 
uiemselves  with  the  military  logic,  that  their  officers  must 
be  answerable  for  the  orders  given,  they  having  no  choice 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  167 

save  to  obey  them.  Alarmed  with  what  had  been  thus 
observed  and  heard,  the  young  men  hastened  to  Glenlyon's 
quarters,  where  they  found  that  officer  and  his  men  pre- 
paring their  arms.  On  questioning  him  about  these  sus 
picious  appearances,  Glenlyon  accounted  for  them  by  a 
story,  that  he  was  bound  on  an  expedition  against  some  of 
Glengarry's  men  j  and,  alluding  to  the  circumstance  of 
their  alliance,  which  made  his  own  cruelty  more  detesta- 
ble, he  added,  "  If  any  thing  evil  had  been  intended, 
would  I  not  have  told  Alaster  and  my  niece  ?" 

Re-assured  by  this  communication,  the  young  men  re- 
tired to  rest,  but  were  speedily  awakened  by  an  old  do- 
mestic, who  called  on  the  two  brothers  to  rise  and  fly  for 
their  lives.  "  Is  it  time  for  you,"  he  said,  "  to  be  sleeping, 
when  your  father  is  murdered  on  his  own  hearth  ?"  Thus 
roused,  they  hurried  out  in  great  terror,  and  heard  through- 
out the  glen,  wherever  there  was  a  place  of  human  hab- 
itation, the  shouts  of  the  murderers,  the  report  of  the 
muskets,  the  screams  of  the  wounded,  and  the  groans  of 
the  dying.  By  their  perfect  knowledge  of  the  scarce 
accessible  cliffs  amongst  which  they  dwelt,  they  were  en- 
abled to  escape  observation,  and  fled  to  the  southern 
access  of  the  glen. 

Meantime,  the  work  of  death  proceeded  with  as  little 
remorse  as  Stair  himself  could  have  desired.  Even  the 
slight  mitigation  of  their  orders  respecting  those  above 
seventy  years,  was  disregarded  by  the  soldiery  in  their  in- 
discriminate thirst  for  blood,  and  several  very  aged  and 
bed-ridden  persons  were  slain  amongst  others.  At  the 
hamlet  where  Glenlyon  had  his  own  quarters,  nine  men, 
including  his  landlord,  were  bound  and  shot  like  felons ; 
and  one  of  them,  MacDonald  of  Auchentriaten,  had  gen- 
eral Hill's  passport  in  his  pocket  at  the  time.  A  fine  lad 
of  twenty  had  by  some  glimpse  of  compassion  on  the  part 
of  the  soldiers,  been  spared,  when  one  Captain  Drum- 
mond  came  up,  and  demanding  why  the  orders  were 
transgressed  in  that  particular,  caused  him  instantly  to  be 
put  to  death.  A  boy,  of  five  or  six  years  old,  clung  to 
Glenlyon's  knees  entreating  for  mercy,  and  offering  to 


168  MASSACRE    OF    GLKNCOE. 

become  his  servant  for  life,  if  he  would  spare  him.     Glen- 
lyon  was  moved  ;  but  the  same  Drummond  stabhed  the 
child  with  his  dirk,  while  he  was  in  this  agony  of  suppli 
cation. 

At  a  place  called  Auchnaion,  one  Barber,  a  sergeant, 
with  a  party  of  soldiers,  fired  on  a  group  of  nine  Mac- 
Donalds,  as  they  were  assembled  round  their  morning  fire, 
and  killed  four  of  them.  The  owner  of  the  house,  a 
brother  of  the  slain  Auchentriaten,  escaped  unhurt,  and 
expressed  a  wish  to  be  put  to  death  rather  in  the  open  air 
than  within  the  house.  "  For  your  bread  which  I  have 
eaten,"  answered  Barber,  "  I  will  grant  the  request." 
MacDonald  was  dragged  to  the  door  accordingly  ;  but  he 
was  an  active  man,  and  when  the  soldiers  were  presenting 
their  firelocks  to  shoot  him,  he  cast  his  plaid  over  their 
faces,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  confusion,  escaped  up 
the  glen. 

The  alarm  being  now  general,  many  other  persons, 
male  and  female,  attempted  their  escape  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  two  sons  of  Maclan  and  the  person  last  men- 
tioned. Flying  from  their  burning  huts,  and  from  their 
murderous  visiters,  the  half-naked  fugitives  committed 
themselves  to  a  winter  morning  of  darkness,  snow,  and 
storm,  amidst  a  wilderness  the  most  savage  in  the  West 
Highlands,  having  a  bloody  death  behind  them,  and  before 
them  tempest,  famine,  and  desolation.  Bewildered  in  the 
snow-wreaths,  several  sunk  to  rise  no  more.  But  the 
seventies  of  the  storm  were  tender  mercies  compared  to 
the  cruelty  of  their  persecutors.  The  great  fall  of  snow, 
which  proved  fatal  to  several  of  the  fugitives,  was  the 
means  of  saving  the  remnant  that  escaped.  Major  Dun- 
canson,  agreeably  to  the  plan  expressed  in  his  orders  to 
Glenlyon,  had  not  failed  to  put  himself  in  mot'on  with  four 
hundred  men,  on  the  evening  preceding  the  slaughter  ; 
and  had  he  reached  the  eastern  passes  out  of  Glencoe  by 
four  in  the  morning,  as  he  calculated,  he  must  have  inter- 
cepted and  destroyed  all  those  who  took  that  only  way  of 
escape  from  Glenlyon  and  his  followers.  But  as  this  re- 
inforcement awived  so  late  as  eleven  in  the  forenoon,  they 


MASSACRK    OF    GLKNCOK.  169 

found  no  MucDonald  alive  in  Glencoe,  save  an  old  man 
of  eighty,  whom  they  slew  ;  and  after  burning  such  houses 
as  were  yet  unconsumed,  they  collected  the  property  of 
the  tribe,  consisting  of  twelve  hundred  head  of  cattle  and 
'lorses,  besides  goats  and  sheep,  and  drove  them  off  to  the 
garrison. 

Thus  ended  this  horrible  deed  of  massacre.  The  nucn- 
oer  of  persons  murdered  was  thirty-eight  ;  those  who 
escaped  might  amount  to  a  hundred  and  fifty  males,  who, 
with  the  women  and  children  of  the  tribe,  had  to  fly  more 
than  twelve  miles  through  rocks  and  wildernesses,  ere 
they  could  reach  any  place  of  safety  or  shelter. 

This  detestable  execution  excited  general  horror  and 
disgust,  not  only  throughout  Scotland,  but  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  did  King  William,  whose  orders,  signed  and 
superscribed  by  himself,  were  the  warrant  of  the  action, 
incredible  evil  both  in  popularity  and  character. 

Stair,  however,  seemed  undaunted,  and  had  the  infamy 
to  write  to  Colonel  Hill,  while  public  indignation  was  at 
the  highest,  that  all  that  could  be  said  of  the  matter  was, 
that  the  execution  was  not  so  complete  as  it  might  have 
been.  There  was,  besides,  a  pamphlet  published  in  his 
defence,  offering  a  bungled  vindication  of  his  conduct  ; 
which  indeed  amounts  only  to  this,  that  a  man  of  the 
Master  of  Stair's  high  place  and  eminent  accomplishments, 
who  had  performed  such  great  services  to  the  public,  of 
which  a  laboured  account  was  given  ;  one  also,  who,  it  is 
particularly  insisted  upon,  performed  the  duty  of  family 
worship  regularly  in  his  household,  ought  not  to  be  over- 
severely  questioned  for  the  death  of  a  few  Highland  Pa- 
pists, whose  morals  were  no  better  than  those  of  English 
highwaymen. 

No  public  notice  was  taken  of  this  abominable  deed 
until  1695,  three  years  after  it  had  been  committed,  when, 
'ate  and  reluctantly,  a  Royal  Commission,  loudly  demand- 
ed by  the  Scottish  nation,  was  granted,  to  inquire  into  the 
particulars  of  the  transaction,  and  to  report  the  issue  01 
their  investigations  to  Parliament. 
90,5 


170  MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE. 

Tlve  Commission  was  of  a  different  opinion  from  the 
apologist  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  reporter,  that  the 
letters  and  instructions  of  Stair  to  Colonel  Hill  and  others, 
were  the  sole  cause  of  the  murder.  They  covered  the 
King's  share  of  the  guilt  by  reporting,  that  the  Secretary's 
instructions  went  beyond  the  warrant  which  William  had 
signed  and  superscribed.  The  royal  mandate,  they  stated, 
only  ordered  the  tribe  of  Glencoe  to  be  subjected  to  mil- 
itary execution,  in  case  there  could  be  any  mode  found  ol 
separating  them  from  the  other  Highlanders.  Having 
thus  found  a  screen,  though  a  very  flimsy  one,  for  Wil- 
liam's share  in  the  transaction,  the  report  of  the  Commis- 
sion let  the  whole  weight  of  the  charge  fall  on  Secretary 
Stair,  whose  letters,  they  state,  intimated  no  mode  of  sep- 
arating the  Glencoe  men  from  the  rest,  as  directed  by  the 
warrant  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  did,  under  a  pretext  of 
public  duty,  appoint  them,  without  inquiry  or  distinction, 
to  be  cut  off  and  rooted  out  in  earnest  and  to  purpose, 
and  that  "  suddenly,  secretly,  and  quietly."  They  re- 
ported, that  these  instructions  of  Stair  had  been  the  war- 
rant for  the  slaughter  ;  that  it  was  unauthorized  by  his 
Majesty's  orders,  and,  in  fact,  deserved  no  name  save  that 
of  a  most  barbarous  murder.  Finally,  the  report  named 
the  Master  of  Stair  as  the  deviser,  and  the  various  military 
officers  employed  as  the  perpetrators,  of  the  same,  and 
suggested,  with  great  moderation,  that  Parliament  should 
address  his  Majesty  to  send  home  Glenlyon  and  the  other 
murderers  to  be  tried,  or  should  do  otherwise  as  his 
Majesty  pleased. 

The  Secretary,  being  by  this  unintelligible  mode  of 
reasoning  thus  exposed  to  the  whole  severity  of  the  storm, 
and  overwhelmed  at  the  same  time  by  the  King's  displeas- 
ure, on  account  of  the  Daricn  affair,  (to  be  presently  men- 
tioned,) was  deprived  of  his  office,  and  obliged  to  retire 
from  public  affairs.  General  indignation  banished  him  so 
entirely  from  public  life,  that,  having  about  this  period 
succeeded  to  his  father's  title  of  Earl  of  Stair,  ho  dared 
not  take  his  seat  in  Parliament  as  such,  on  account  of  the 
Oireat  of  the  Lord  Justice  Clerk,  that  if  he  did  so,  he 


MASSACRE    OF    GLENCOE.  171 

would  move  that  the  address  and  report  upon  the  Ghncoe 
Massacre  should  be  produced  and  inquired  into.  Ii  vvtis 
the  year  1700  before  the  Earl  of  Stair  found  the  affair 
so  much  forgotten,  that  he  ventured  to  assume  the  place 
in  Parliament  to  which  his  rank  entitled  him  :  and  he  died 
in  1707,  on  the  very  day  when  the  treaty  of  Union  was 
signed,  not  without  suspicion  of  suicide. 

Of  the  direct  agents  in  the  massacre  Hamilton  abscond- 
ed, and  afterwards  joined  King  William's  army  in  Flan- 
ders, where  Glenlyon,  and  the  officers  and  soldiers  con- 
nected with  the  murder,  were  then  serving.  The  King, 
availing  himself  of  the  option  left  to  him  in  the  address 
of  the  Scottish  Parliament,  did  not  order  them  home  for 
trial ;  nor  does  it  appear  that  any  of  them  were  dismissed 
the  service,  or  punished  for  their  crime,  otherwise  than  by 
the  general  hatred  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  and  the 
universal  execration  of  posterity. 

Although  it  is  here  a  little  misplaced,  I  cannot  refrain 
from  telling  you  an  anecdote  connected  with  the  preced- 
ing events,  which  befell  so  late  as  the  year  1745-6,  during 
the  romantic  attempt  of  Charles  Edward,  grandson  ot 
James  II.,  to  regain  the  throne  of  his  fathers.  He  march- 
ed through  the  Low  Countries,  at  the  head  of  an  army 
consisting  of  the  Highland  clans,  and  obtained  for  a  time 
considerable  advantages.  Amongst  other  Highlanders, 
the  descendant  of  the  murdered  Maclan  of  Glencoe  joined 
his  standard  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  men.  The  route 
of  the  Highland  army  brought  them  near  to  a  beautiful  seat 
built  by  the  Earl  of  Stair,  so  often  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding narrative,  and  the  principal  mansion  of  his  family. 
An  alarm  arose  in  the  councils  of  Prince  Charles,  lest 
the  MacDonalds  of  Glencoe  should  seize  this  opportunity 
of  marking  their  recollection  of  the  injustice  done  to  their 
ancestors,  by  burning  or  plundering  the  house  of  the  de- 
scendant of  their  persecutor;  and,  as  such  an  act  of  vio- 
lence might  have  done  the  Prince  great  prejudice  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people  of  the  Low  Country,  it  was  agreed 
that  a  guarc  slioulc.  be  posted  to  protect  the  house  of 
Lord  Stair. 


172  MASSACRE    OF    GLKNCOE. 

MacDouald  of  Glencoe  heard  the  resolution,  and 
•3d  liis  honour  and  that  of  his  clan  concerned.  He  de- 
manded an  audience  of  Charles  Edward,  and  admitting 
the  propriety  of  placing  a  guard  on  a  house  so  obnoxious 
to  the  feelings  of  the  Highland  army,  and  to  those  of  his 
own  clan  in  particular,  he  demanded,  as  a  matter  of  right 
rather  than  favour,  that  the  protecting  guard  should  be 
supplied  by  the  MacDonalds  of  Glencoe.  If  this  request 
was  not  granted,  he  announced  his  purpose  to  return  home 
with  his  people,  and  prosecute  the  enterprise  no  further. 
"  The  MacDonalds  of  Glencoe"  he  said,  "  would  be  dis- 
honoured by  remaining  in  a  service  where  others  than 
their  own  men  were  employed  to  restrain  them,  under 
whatsoever  circumstances  of  provocation,  within  the  line 
of  their  military  duty."  The  Royal  Adventurer  granted 
the  request  of  the  high  spirited  chieftain,  and  the  Mac- 
Donalds  of  Glencoe  guarded  from  the  slightest  injury  the 
liouse  of  the  cruel  and  crafty  statesman  who  had  devised 
and  directed  the  massacre  of  their  ancestors.  Consid- 
ering how  natural  the  thirst  of  vengeance  becomes  to 
men  in  a  primitive  state  of  society,  and  how  much  it  was 
interwoven  with  the  character  of  the  Scottish  Highlander, 
Glencoe's  conduct  on  this  occasion  is  a  noble  instance  oi 
a  high  and  heroic  preference  of  duty  to  passion. 

We  must  now  turn  from  this  terrible  story  to  one  which, 
though  it  does  not  seize  on  the  imagination  with  the  same 
force  of  the  narrative,  yet  embraces  a  far  wider  and  more 
extensive  field  of  death  and  disaster. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

The.  Darien  Scheme — Death  of  William,  and  Accession 
of  Queen  Anne. 

HUMAN  character,  whether  national  or  individual,  pre- 
sents often  to  our  calm  consideration  the  strangest  incon- 
sistencies ;  but  there  are  few  more  striking  than  that  which 


I1ARIEN    SCHEME.  173 

Scotchmen  exhibit  in  their  private  conduct,  contrasted 
with  their  \iews  when  united  together  for  any  general  or 
national  purpose.  In  his  own  personal  affairs  the  Scotch- 
man is  remarked  as  cautious,  frugal,  and  prudent,  in  an 
extreme  degree,  not  generally  aiming  at  enjoyment  or 
relaxation  till  he  has  realized  the  means  of  indulgence, 
and  studiously  avoiding  those  temptations  of  pleasure,  to 
which  men  of  other  countries  most  readily  give  way. 
But  when  a  number  of  Scotchmen  associate  for  any  spec- 
ulative project,  it  would  seem  that  their  natural  caution 
becomes  thawed  and  dissolved  by  the  union  of  their  joint 
hopes,  and  that  their  imaginations  are  heated  and  influ- 
enced by  any  splendid  prospect  held  out  to  them.  They 
appear,  in  particular,  to  lose  the  power  of  calculating  and 
adapting  their  means  to  the  end  which  they  desire  to  ac- 
complish, and  are  readily  induced  to  aim  at  objects  mag- 
nificent in  themselves,  but  which  they  have  not,  unhappily, 
the  wealth  or  strength  necessary  to  attain.  Thus  the 
natives  of  Scotland  are  often  found  to  attempt  splendid 
designs,  which,  shipwrecked  for  want  of  the  necessary 
expenditure,  give  foreigners  occasion  to  smile  at  the  great 
error  and  equally  great  misfortune  of  the  nation, — I  mean 
their  pride  and  their  poverty.  There  is  no  greater  instance 
of  this  tendency  to  daring  speculation,  which  rests  at  the 
bottom  of  the  coldness  and  caution  of  the  Scottish  char 
acter,  than  the  disastrous  history  of  the  Darien  colony. 

Paterson,  a  man  of  comprehensive  views  and  great 
sagacity,  was  the  parent  and  inventor  of  this  memorable 
scheme.  In  youth  he  had  been  an  adventurer  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  it  was  said  a  bucanier,  that  is,  one  of  a  sprcirs 
of  adventurers  nearly  allied  to  pirates,  who,  consisting  o' 
different  nations,  and  divided  into  various  bands,  made 
war  on  the  Spanish  commerce  and  settlements  in  the 
South  Seas,  and  among  the  West  Indian  islands.  In  this 
roving  course  of  life,  Paterson  had  made  himself  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  geography  of  South  America,  the 
pioduce  of  the  country,  the  nature  of  its  commerce  am' 


174  IIVIilKN     ,S(  UKME. 

the  manner  in  which  the  Spaniards  governed  that  exten- 
sive region. 

On  his  return  to  Europe,  however,  the  schemes  which 
he  had  formed  respecting  the  New  World,  were  laid  aside 
for  another  project,  fraught  with  the  most  mighty  and  im- 
portant consequences.  This  was  the  plan  of  that  great 
national  establishment,  the  Bank  of  England,  of  which  he 
had  the  honour  to  suggest  the  first  idea.  For  a  time  he 
was  admitted  a  Director  of  that  institution,  but  it  befell 
Patersori  as  often  happens  to  the  first  projectors  of  great 
schemes.  Other  persons,  possessed  of  wealth  and  influ- 
ence, interposed,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  ideas  of  the 
obscure  and  unprotected  stranger,  made  them  their  own 
by  alterations  or  improvements  more  or  less  trivial,  and 
finally  elbowed  the  inventor  out  of  concern  in  the  institu- 
tion, the  Foundation  of  which  he  had  laid. 

Thus  expelled  from  the  Bank  of  England,  Paterson 
turned  his  thoughts  to  the  plan  of  settling  a  colony  in 
America  ;  a  country  so  favoured  in  point  of  situation,  thai 
it  seemed  to  him  formed  to  be  the  site  of  the  most  flour- 
ishing commercial  capital  in  the  universe. 

The  two  great  continents  of  North  and  South  America, 
are  joined  together  by  an  isthmus,  or  narrow  tract  of  land, 
called  Darien.  This  neck  of  land  is  not  above  a  day's 
journey  in  breadth,  and  as  it  is  washed  by  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  on  the  eastern  side,  and  the  Great  Pacific  Ocean 
on  the  west,  the  isthmus  seemed  designed  by  nature  as  a 
common  centre  for  the  commerce  of  the  world.  Pater- 
son  ascertained,  or  at  least  alleged  that  he  had  ascertained 
tbat  the  isthmus  had  never  been  the  property  of  Spain, 
but  was  still  possessed  by  the  original  natives,  a  tribe  ol 
fierce  and  warlike  Indians,  who  made  war  on  the  Span- 
iards. According  to  the  law  of  nations  therefore,  any 
slate  nad  a  right  of  forming  a  settlement  in  Darien,  pro- 
viding the  consent  of  the  Indians  was  first  obtained  ;  nor 
could  their  doing  so  be  justly  made  subject  of  challenge 
even  by  Spain,  so  extravagantly  jealous  of  all  interference 
with  her  South  American  provinces.  This  plan  of  a  set- 
tlement, with  so  many  advantages  to  recommend  it,  was 


DAIUEN    SCHEME.  175 

proposed  by  Patersori  to  the  merchants  of  Hamburgh,  to 
the  Dutch,  and  even  to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburgh  ; 
but  it  was  coldly  received  by  all  these  states. 

The  scheme  was  at  length  offered  to  the  merchants  ol 
London,  the  only  traders  probably  in  the  world  who  had 
the  means  of  realizing  the  splendid  visions  of  Paterson. 
But  when  the  projector  was  in  London,  endeavouring  to 
solicit  attention  to  his  plan,  he  became  intimate  with  the 
celebrated  Fletcher  of  Salton.  This  gentleman,  one  oi 
the  most  accomplished  men,  and  best  patriots,  whom  Scot- 
land has  produced  in  any  age,  had,  nevertheless,  some 
notions  of  her  interests  which  were  more  fanciful  than  real, 
and,  anxious  to  do  his  country  service,  did  not  sufficiently 
consider  the  adequacy  of  the  means  by  which  her  welfare 
was  to  be  obtained.  He  was  dazzled  by  the  vision  of 
opulence  and  grandeur  which  Paterson  unfolded,  and 
thought  of  nothing  less  than  securing,  for  the  benefit  of 
Scotland  alone,  a  scheme  which  promised  to  the  state 
which  should  adopt  it,  the  keys,  as  it  were,  of  tiie  New 
World.  The  projector  was  easily  persuaded  to  give  his 
<wn  country  the  benefit  of  his  scheme  of  colonization, 
and  went  to  Scotland  along  with  Fletcher.  Here  the  plan 
found  general  acceptation,  and  particularly  with  the  Scot- 
tish administration,  who  were  greatly  embarrassed  at  the 
time  by  the  warm  prosecution  of  the  affair  of  Glencoe, 
and  who  easily  persuaded  King  William  that  some  free- 
dom and  facilities  of  trade  granted  to  the  Scotch,  would 
divert  the  public  attention  from  the  investigation  of  a  'nat- 
ter, not  very  creditable  to  his  Majesty's  reputation  any 
more  than  to  their  own.  Stair,  in  particular,  a  paity 
deeply  interested,  gave  the  Darien  scheme  the  full  support 
of  his  eloquence  and  interest,  in  hope  to  regain  a  part  oi 
his  lost  popularity. 

The  Scott  sh  ministers  obtained  permission,  according- 
ly, to  grant  such  privileges  of  trade  to  the  Scotch  as  might 
not  be  prejudicial  to  that  of  England.  In  June  1695,  these 
influential  persons  obtained  a  statute  from  Parliament,  and 
afterwards  a  charter  from  the  Crown,  for  creating  a  cor- 
porate body,  or  stock  company,  by  name  of  the  Company 


176 


DAK1KN     M  Uh.MK. 


uf  Scotland  trading  to  Africa  and  the  Indies,  vv.ih  power 
to  plant  colonies  and  build  forts  in  places  not  possessed  by 
other  European  nations,  the  consent  always  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  places  where  they  settled  being  obtained 

The  hopes  entertained  of  the  profits  to  arise  from  this 
speculation,  were  in  the  last  degree  sanguine  ;  not  even 
the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  signed  with  more 
eager  enthusiasm.  Almost  every  one  who  had,  or  could 
command,  any  sum  of  ready  money,  embarked  it  in  the 
Indian  and  African  Company  ;  many  subscribed  their  all ; 
maidens  threw  in  their  portions,  and  widows  whatever 
sums  they  could  raise  upon  their  dower,  to  be  repaid  a 
hundred  fold  by  the  golden  shower  which  was  to  descend 
upon  the  subscribers.  Some  sold  estates  to  vest  the  money 
in  the  Company's  funds,  and  so  eager  was  the  spirit  of 
speculation,  that,  when  eight  hundred  thousand  pounds 
formed  the  whole  circulating  capital  of  Scotland,  half  of 
that  sum  was  vested  in  the  Darien  Stock. 

But  it  was  not  the  Scotch  alone  whose  hopes  were  ex- 
cited by  the  rich  prospects  held  out  to  them.  An  offei 
being  made  by  the  managers  of  the  Company,  to  share 
the  expected  advantages  of  the  scheme  with  English  and 
foreign  merchants,  it  was  so  eagerly  grasped  at,  that  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  of  stock  was  subscribed  for  in 
London  within  nine  days  after  opening  the  books.  The 
merchants  of  Hamburgh  and  of  Holland  subscribed  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds. 

Suchvwas  the  hopeful  state  of  the  new  Company's  af 
fairs,  when  the  English  jealousy  of  trade  interfered  to 
crush  an  adventure  which  seemed  so  promising.  The 
idea  which  then  and  long  afterwards  prevailed  in  England 
was,  that  all  profit  was  lost  to  the  British  empire  which 
did  not  arise  out  of  commerce  exclusively  English.  The 
increase  of  trade  in  Scotland  or  Ireland  they  considered, 
not  as  an  addition  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  united 
nations,  but  as  a  positive  loss  to  England.  The  com- 
merce of  Ireland  they  had  long  laid  under  severe  shackles, 
to  secure  their  own  predominance  ;  but  it  was  not  so  easy 
io  deal  with  Scotland,  who  had  not  only  a  separate  Icgis 


DAIIIKX    SCHEME.  177 

I  a tu re,  but  acknowledged  no  subordination  or  fealty  to 
England,  being  to  all  effects  a  foreign  country,  though 
governed  by  the  same  King. 

This  new  species  of  rivalry  on  the  part  of  an  old  enemy, 
was  both  irritating  and  alarming.  The  English  had  hith- 
erto thought  of  the  Scotch  as  a  poor  and  fierce  nation, 
who,  in  spite  of  fewer  numbers  and  far  inferior  resources, 
was  always  ready  to  engage  in  war  with  her  powerful 
neighbour  ;  and  it  was  embarrassing  and  provoking  to  find 
the  same  nation  display,  in  spite  of  its  proverbial  caution, 
a  hardy  and  ambitious  spirit  of  emulating  them  in  the  paths 
of  commerce. 

These  narrow-minded,  unjust,  and  ungenerous  appre- 
hensions, prevailed  so  widely  throughout  the  English 
nation,  that  both  Houses  of  Parliament  joined  in  an  ad- 
dress to  the  King,  stating  that  the  advantages  given  to  the 
newly-erected  Scottish  Indian  and  African  Company, 
would  ensure  that  kingdom  so  great  a  superiority  over  the 
English  East  India  Company,  that  a  great  part  of  the 
stock  and  shipping  of  England  would  be  transported  to 
the  north,  and  Scotland  would  become  a  free  port  for  all 
East  Indian  commodities,  which  they  would  be  able  to 
furnish  at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  the  English.  By  this 
means,  it  was  said,  England  would  lose  all  the  advantages 
of  an  exclusive  trade  in  the  Eastern  commodities,  which 
had  always  been  a  great  article  in  her  foreign  commerce 
and  sustain  infinite  detriment  in  the  sale  of  her  domestic 
manufactures.  The  King,  in  his  gracious  answer  to  this 
address,  acknowledged  the  justice  of  its  statements,  though 
as  void  of  just  policy  as  of  grounds  in  public  law.  It 
bore,  that  "  the  King  had  been  ill  served  in  Scotland,  but 
hoped  some  remedies  might  still  be  found  to  prevent  the 
evils  apprehended."  To  show  that  his  resentment  was 
serious  against  his  Scottish  ministers,  King  William  de- 
prived Stair  of  his  office  as  Secretary  of  State.  Thus  a 
statesman,  who  had  retained  his  place  in  spite  of  the 
bloody  deed  of  Gleocoe,  was  deprived  of  it  for  attempting 
to  serve  his  country,  by  extending  her  trade  and  national 
importance. 

18     2d  SER. 


178  DARIKN    SCHK.Mi:. 

Tlie  English  Parliament  persisted  in  the  attempt  to  find 
remedies  for  the  evils  which  they  were  pleased  to  appre- 
hend from  the  Darien  scheme,  by  appointing  a  Committee 
of  Inquiry,  with  directions  to  summon  before  them  such 
persons  as  had,  by  subscribing  to  the  Company,  given  en- 
couragement to  the  progress  of  an  undertaking,  so  fraught, 
as  they  alleged  with  danger  to  th  !  trade  of  England. 
These  persons  being  called  before  Parliament,  and  men- 
aced with  impeachment,  were  compelled  to  renounce  their 
connexion  with  the  undertaking,  which  was  thus  deprived 
of  the  aid  of  English  subscriptions,  to  the  amount,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  of  three  hundred  thousand  pounds. 
Nay,  so  eager  did  the  English  Parliament  show  themselves 
in  this  matter,  that  they  even  extended  their  menace  of 
impeachment  to  some  native-born  Scotchmen,  who  had 
offended  the  House  by  subscribing  their  own  money  to  a 
Company  formed  in  their  own  country,  and  according  to 
their,  own  laws. 

That  this  mode  of  destroying  the  funds  of  the  concern 
might  be  yet  more  effectual,  the  weight  of  the  King's  in- 
fluence with  foreign  states  was  employed  to  diminish  the 
credit  of  the  undertaking,  and  to  intercept  the  subscrip- 
tions which  had  been  thence  obtained.  For  this  purpose, 
the  English  envoy  at  Hamburgh  was  directed  to  transmit 
to  the  Senate  of  that  commercial  city  a  remonstrance  on 
the  part  of  King  William,  accusing  them  of  having  en- 
couraged the  commissioners  of  the  Darien  Company  ; 
requesting-  them  to  desist  from  doing  so  ;  intimating  that 
the  plan,  said  to  be  fraught  with  many  evils,  had  not  the 
support  of  his  Majesty  ;  and  protesting,  that  the  refusal 
of  the  senate  to  withdraw  iheir  countenance  from  the 
scheme,  would  threaten  an  interruption  to  the  friendship 
which  his  Majesty  desired  to  cultivate  with  the  good  city 
of  Hamburgh.  The  Senate  returned  to  this  application  a 
spirited  answer  : — "  The  city  of  Hamburgh,"  they  said, 
"  considered  it  as  strange  that  the  King  of  England  should 
dictate  to  them,  a  free  people,  with  whom  they  were  to 
engage  in  commercial  arrangements  ;  and  were  yet  moi\J 
Astonished  to  find  themselves  blamed  for  having  entfn-d 


DAKIEN     SCIIEMK.  179 

into  such  engagements  with  a  body  of  his  own  Scottish 
subjects,  incorporated  under  a  special  act  of  Parl'uiiient." 
But  as  the  menace  of  the  envoy  showed  that  the  Darien 
Company  must  be  thwarted  in  all  its  proceedings  by  the 
superior  power  of  England,  the  prudent  Hamburghers, 
ceasing  to  consider  it  as  a  hopeful  speculation,  finally  with- 
drew their  subscriptions.  The  Dutch,  to  whom  Hilliam 
could  more  decidedly  dictate,  from  his  authority  with  the 
States  of  Holland  as  Stadtholder,  and  who  were  jealous, 
besides,  of  the  interference  of  the  Scotch  wtfh  their  own 
East  Indian  trade,  adopted  a  similar  course,  without  re- 
monstrance ;  and  thus  the  company,  deserted  both  by 
foreign  and  English  associates,  were  crippled  in  their  un- 
dertaking, and  left  to  their  own  limited  resources. 

The  managers  of  the  scheme,  supported  by  the  general 
sense  of  the  people  of  Scotland,  made  warm  remonstran- 
ces to  King  William  on  the  hostile  interference  of  his 
Hamburgh  envoy.  In  William's  answer,  he  was  forced 
meanly  to  evade  what  he  was  resolved  not  to  grant,  and 
yet  could  not  in  equity  refuse.  "  The  King,"  it  was 
promised,  "  would  send  instructions  to  his  envoy,  not  to 
make  use  of  his  Majesty's  name  or  authority  for  obstruct- 
ing their  engagements  with  the  city  of  Hamburgh."  The 
Hamburghers,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  themselves 
ready  to  make  good  their  subscriptions,  if  they  had  any 
assurance  from  the  King  of  England,  that  in  so  doing  they 
would  be  safe  from  his  threatened  resentment.  But,  in 
spite  of  repeated  promises,  the  envoy  received  no  power 
to  make  such  declaration.  Thus  the  Darien  Company 
lost  the  advantage  of  support,  to  the  extent  of  two  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  subscribed  in  Hamburgh  and  Holland, 
and  that  by  the  personal  and  hostile  interference  of  their 
own  Monarch,  under  wrhose  charter  they  were  embod  ed. 

Scotland  left  to  her  unassisted  resources  would  have 
acted  with  less  spirit  but  more  wisdom,  in  renouncing  Her 
ambitious  plan  of  colonization,  sure  as  it  now  was  to  be 
thwarted  by  the  hostile  interference  of  her  unfriendly 
neighbours.  But  those  engaged  in  the  scheme,  compris- 
ing great  part  of  the  nation,  could  not  be  rxprrtnl  easii> 


(80  n  VKII.V    -<  m. MI.. 

* 

to  renounce  hopes  which  had  been  so  highly  excited,  and 
enough  remained  of  the  proud  and  obstinate  spirit  with 
which  their  ancestors  had  maintained  their  independence, 
to  induce  the  Scotch,  even  when  thrown  back  on  their  lim- 
ited means,  to  determine  upon  the  establishment  of  their 
favourite  settlement  at  Darien,  in  spite  of  the  desertion  of 
their  English  and  foreign  subscribers,  and  in  defiance  of 
the  invidious  opposition  of  their  powerful  neighbours. 
They  caught  the  spirit  of  their  ancestors,  who,  after  losing 
so  many  dreadful  battles,  were  always  found  ready  with 
sword  in  hand,  to  dispute  the  next  campaign. 

The  contributors  were  encouraged  in  this  stubborn  re- 
solution, by  the  flattering  account  which  was  given  of  the 
country  to  be  colonized  in  which  every  class  of  Scotch- 
men found  something  to  flatter  their  hopes,  and  to  capti- 
vate their  imagination.  The  description  giving  of  Darien 
by  Paterson,  was  partly  derived  from  his  own  knowledge, 
partly  from  the  report  of  bucaniers  and  adventurers,  and 
the  whole  was  exaggerated  by  the  eloquence  of  an  able 
man,  pleading  in  behalf  of  a  favourite  project. 

The  climate  was  represented  as  healthy  and  cool,  the 
tropical  heats  being  mitigated  by  the  height  of  the  coun- 
try, and  by  the  shade  of  extensive  forests,  which  yet  pre- 
sented neither  thicket  nor  underwood,  but  would  admit  a 
horseman  to  gallop  through  them  unimpeded.  Those 
acquainted  with  trade  were  assured  of  the  benefits  of  a 
safe  and  beautiful  harbour,  where  the  advantages  of  iree 
commerce  and  universal  toleration,  would  attract  traders 
from  all  the  world,  while  the  produce  of  China,  Japan, 
the  Spice  Islands,  and  Eastern  India,  brought  to  the  bay 
of  Panama  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  might  be  transferred  by 
a  safe  and  easy  route  across  the  Isthmus  to  the  new  set- 
tlement, and  exchanged  for  all  the  commodities  of  Eu- 
rope. "  Trade,"  said  the  commercial  enthusiast,  "  will 
beget  trade — money  will  beget  money — the  commercial 
world  shall  no  longer  wanTwork  for  their  hands,  but  wil. 
rather  want  hands  for  their  work.  This  door  of  the  seas, 
and  key  of  the  unit  erse,  will  enable  its  possessors  to  be- 
come the  legislators  of  both  world?,  and  the  aibitrators  of 


DAKIEN     SCHEME  J81 

commerce.  The  settlers  at  Darien  will  acquire  a  noblei 
empire  than  Alexander  or  Caesar,  without  fatigue,  ex- 
pense, or  danger,  as  well  as  without  incurring  the  gui'lt  and 
bloodshed  of  conquerors."  To  those  more  vulgar  minds 
who  cannot  separate  the  idea  of  wealth  from  the  precious 
metals,  the  projector  held  out  the  prospect  of  golden 
mines.  The  hardy  Highlanders,  many  of  whom  embark- 
ed in  the  undertaking,  were  to  exchange  their  barren  moors 
for  extensive  savannahs  of  the  richest  pasture,  with  some 
latent  hopes  of  a  creagh  (or  foray)  upon  Spaniards  or  In- 
dians. The  Lowland  laird  was  to  barter  his  meagre  her- 
itage, and  oppressive  feudal  tenure,  for  the  free  possession 
of  unlimited  tracts  of  ground,  where  the  rich  soil,  three 
or  four  feet  deep,  would  return  the  richest  produce  for 
the  slightest  cultivation.  Allured  by  these  hopes,  many 
proprietors  actually  abandoned  their  inheritances,  and 
many  more  sent  their  sons  and  near  relations  to  realise 
their  golden  hopes,  while  the  poor  labourers,  who  desired 
no  more  than  bread  and  freedom  of  conscience,  shoul- 
dered their  mattocks,  and  followed  their  masters  in  the 
path  of  emigration. 

Twelve  hundred  men,  three  hundred  of  whom  were 
youths  of  the  best  Scottish  families,  embarked  on  board 
ol  five  frigates,  purchased  at  Hamburgh  for  the  service 
of  the  expedition  ;  for  the  King  refused  the  Company 
even  the  trifling  accommodation  of  a  ship  of  war,  which 
lay  idle  at  Burntisland.  They  reached  their  destination 
in  safety,  and  disembarked  at  a  place  called  Acta,  where, 
by  cutting  through  a  peninsula,  they  obtained  a  safe  and 
insulated  situation  for  a  town,  called  New  Edinburgh,  and 
a  fort  named  Saint  Andrew.  With  the  same  fond  re- 
membrance of  their  native  land,  the  colony  itself  was 
called  Caledonia.  They  were  favourably  received  by 
the  native  princes,  from  whom  they  purchased  the  land 
they  required.  The  harbour,  which  was  excellent,  was 
proclaimed  a  free  port ;  and  in  the  outset  the  happiest 
result?  were  expected  from  the  settlement. 


182  DARIEN    SCHEME. 

The  arrival  of  the  colonists  took  place  in  winter,  wh^n 
the  air  was  cool  and  temperate  ;  but  with  the  summei 
returned  the  heat,  and  with  the  heat  came  the  diseases  of 
a  tropical  climate.  Those  who  had  reported  so  favour- 
ably  of  the  climate  of  Darien,  had  probably  been  persons 
who  had  only  visited  the  coast  during  the  healthy  season, 
or  mariners,  who,  being  chiefly  on  shipboard,  find  many 
situations  healthy,  which  prove  pestilential  to  Europeans 
residing  on  shore.  The  health  of  the  settlers  accustom- 
ed to  a  cold  and  mountainous  country,  give  way  fast  un- 
der the  constant  exhalations  of  the  sultry  climate,  and 
even  a  more  pressing  danger  arose  from  the  want  of  food. 
The  provisions  which  the  colonists  had  brought  from 
Scotland  were  expended,  and  the  country  afforded  them 
only  such  supplies  as  could  be  procured  by  the  precarious 
success  of  fishing  and  the  chase. 

This  must  have  been  foreseen  ;  but  it  was  never  doubted 
that  ample  supplies  would  be  procured  from  the  English 
provinces  in  North  America,  which  afforded  superabund- 
ance of  provisions,  and  from  the  West  India  colonies, 
which  always  possessed  superfluities.  It  was  here  that 
the  enmity  of  the  King  and  the  English  nation  met  the 
unfortunate  settlers  most  unexpectedly,  and  most  severely. 
In  North  America,  and  in  the  West  India  Islands,  the 
most  savage  pirates  and  bucaniers,  men  who  might  be 
termed  enemies  to  the  human  race,  and  had  done  deeds 
which  seemed  to  exclude  them  from  intercourse  with 
mankind,  had  nevertheless  found  repeated  refuge, — had 
refitted  their  squadrons,  and,  supplied  with  every  means 
of  keeping  the  sea,  had  set  sail  in  a  condition  to  commit 
new  murders  and  piracies.  But  no  such  relief  was  ex- 
tended to  the  Scotch  colonists  at  Darien,  though  acting 
under  a  charter  from  theii  Sovereign,  and  establishing  a 
peaceful  colony  according  to  the  law  of  nations,  and  for 
the  universal  benefit  of  mankind. 

The  governors  of  Jamaica,  Barbadoes,  and  New  York, 
published  proclamations,  setting  forth,  that  whereas  it  had 
been  signified  to  them  (the  governors)  by  the  English 
Secretary  of  State,  that  his  Majesty  was  unacquainted 


nvim  N   SCHEME.  183 

with  the  purpose  and  design  of  the  Scotch  settlers  at 
Daricn,  (which  was  a  positive  falsehood,)  and  that  it  was 
contrary  to  the  peace  entered  into  with  his  Majesty's  al- 
lies, (no  European  power  having  complained  ol  it,)  and 
that  the  governors  of  the  said  colonies  had  heen  command- 
ed not  to  afford  them  any  assistance  ;  therefore,  they  did 
strictly  charge  the  colonists  over  whom  they  presided,  to 
hold  no  correspondence  with  the  said  Scots,  and  to  give 
them  no  assistance  of  arms,  ammunition,  provisions,  or 
any  other  necessary  whatsoever,  either  by  themselves  or 
any  others  for  them  ;  as  those  transgressing  the  tenor  of 
the  proclamation,  would  answer  the  breach  of  his  Majes- 
ty's commands  at  their  highest  peril. 

These  proclamations  were  strictly  obeyed  ;  and  every 
species  of  relief,  not  only  that  which  countrymen  may 
claim  of  their  fellow-subjects,  and  Christians  of  their  fel- 
low-Christians, but  such  as  the  vilest  criminal  has  a  right 
to  demand,  because  still  holding  the  same  human  shape 
with  the  community  whose  laws  he  has  offended, — the 
mere  supply,  namely  of  sustenance,  the .  meanest  boon 
granted  to  the  meanest  beggar}- — was  denied  to  the  colo- 
nists of  Darien. 

Famine  aided  the  diseases  which  swept  them  off  in 
large  numbers  ;  and  undoubtedly  they,  who  thus  perish- 
ed for  want  of  the  provisions  for  which  they  were  willing 
to  pay,  were  as  much  murdered  by  King  William's  gov- 
ernment, as  if  they  had  been  shot  in  the  snows  of  Glen- 
coe.  The  various  miseries  of  the  colony  became  alto- 
gether intolerable,  and,  after  waiting  for  assistance  eight 
months,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  adventurers  having 
died,  the  miserable  remainder  abandoned  the  settlement. 

Shortly  after  the  departure  of  the  first  colony,  another 
body  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  who  had  been  sent  out 
from  Scotland,  arrived  at  Darien,  under  the  hope  of  find- 
ing their  friends  alive,  and  the  settlement  prosperous. 
This  reinforcement  suffered  by  a  bad  passage,  in  which 
one  of  their  ships  was  lost,  and  several  of  their  number 
died.  They  took  possession  of  the  deserted  settlement 
with  sad  anticipations,  and  were  not  long  in  experiencing 


184  DARIEN    SCHEME. 

the  wme  miseries  which  had  destroyed  and  dispersed 
their  predecessors.  Two  months  after,  they  were  joined 
by  Campbell  of  Finnab,  with  a  third  body  of  three  hun- 
dred men,  chiefly  from  his  own  Highland  «estate,  many 
of  whom  had  served  under  him  in  Flanders,  where  he 
had  acquired  an  honourable  military  reputation.  It  was 
time  the  colony  should  receive  such  support,  for,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  other  difficulties,  they  were  now  threatened 
by  the  Spaniards. 

Two  years  had  elapsed  since  the  colonization  of  Darien 
had  become  a  matter  of  public  discussion,  and  notwith- 
standing their  feverish  jealousy  of  their  South  American 
settlements,  the  Spaniards  had  not  made  any  remonstrance 
against  it.  Nay,  so  close  and  intimate  was  the  King  of 
Spain's  friendship  with  King  William,  that  it  seems  pos- 
sible he  might  never  have  done  so,  unless  the  colonists 
had  been  disowned  by  their  sovereign,  as  if  they  had 
been  vagabonds  and  outlaws.  But  finding  them  so  treat- 
ed by  their  Prince,  the  Spaniards  felt  themselves  invited 
in  a  manner  to  attack  them,  and  not  only  lodged  a  remon- 
strance against  the  settlement  with  the  English  cabinet, 
but  seized  one  of  the  vessels  wrecked  on  the  coast,  con- 
fiscated the  ship,  and  made  the  crew  prisoners.  The 
Darien  Company  sent  an  address  to  the  King  by  the 
hands  of  Lord  Basil  Hamilton,  remonstrating  against  this 
injury  ;  but  William,  who  studied  every  means  to  dis- 
countenance the  unfoitunate  scheme,, refused,  under  the 
most  frivolous  pretexts,  to  receive  the  petition.  This  be- 
came so  obvious,  that  the  young  nobleman  determined 
that  the  address  should  be  received  in  season  or  out  of 
season,  and,  taking  a  public  opportunity  to  approach  the 
King  as  he  was  leaving  the  saloon  of  audience,  he  obtrud- 
ed himself  and  the  petition  upon  his  notice,  with  more 
bluntness  than  ceremony.  "  That  young  man  is  too 
bold,"  said  William  ;  but,  doing  justice  to  Lord  Basil's 
motive,  he  presently  added, — "  if  a  man  can  be  too  bold 
in  the  cause  of  his  country." 

The  fate  of  the  colony  now  came  to  a  crisis.  The 
Spaniaids  had  brought  from  the  Pacific  a  force  of  six- 


DARIEN    SCHEME.  185 

teen  hundred  men,  who  were  stationed  at  a  place  called 
Tubucantee,  waiting  the  arrival  of  an  armament  of  eleven 
ships,  with  troops  on  board,  destined  to  attack  Fort  St. 
Andrew.  Captain  Campbell,  who,  by  the  unanimous 
consent  of  the  settlers,  was  chosen  to  the  supreme  mili- 
tary command,  marched  against  them  with  two  hundred 
men,  surprised  and  stormed  their  camp,  and  dispersed 
their  army,  with  considerable  slaughter.  But  in  return- 
ing from  his  successful  expedition,  he  had  the  mortifica- 
tion to  learn  that  the  Spanish  ships  had  arrived  before 
the  harbour,  disembarked  their  troops,  and  invested  the 
place.  A  desperate  defence  was  maintained  for  six 
weeks  ;  until  loss  of  men,  want  of  ammunition,  and  the 
approach  of  famine,  compelled  the  colonists  to  an  hon- 
ourable surrender.  The  survivors  of  this  unhappy  set- 
tlement were  so  few,  and  so  much  exhausted,  that  they 
were  unable  to  weigh  the  anchor  of  the  vessel  in  whict 
they  were  to  leave  the  fatal  shore,  without  assistance  from 
the  conquering  Spaniards. 

Thus  ended  the  attempt  of  Darien,  an  enterprise  splen- 
did in  itself,  but  injudicious,  because  far  beyond  the  force 
of  the  adventurous  little  nation  by  which  it  was  under 
taken.     Paterson  survived  the  disaster,  and,  even  when 
all  was  over,  endeavoured  to  revive  the  scheme,  by  allow 
ing  the  English  three-fourths  in  a  new  Stock  Company 
But  national  animosities  were  too  high  to  suffer  his  pro- 
posal to  be  listened  to.       He  died  at  an  advanced  age, 
poor  and  neglected. 

The  failure  of  this  favourite  project,  deep  sorrow  for 
the  numbers  who  had  fallen,  many  of  whom  were  men 
of  birth  and  blood,  the  regret  for  pecuniary  losses,  which 
threatened  national  bankruptcy,  and  indignation  at  the 
manner  in  which  their  charter  had  been  disregarded,  all 
at  once  agitated  from  one  end  to  the  other  a  kingdom, 
ivhich  is  to  a  proverb  proud,  poor,  and  warm  in  their 
domestic  attachments.  Nothing  could  be  heard  through- 
out Scotland  but  the  language  of  grief  and  of  resentment 
Indsmnification,  redress,  revenge,  were  demanded  by 
906 


186  DARIKX    SCHEME. 

every  mouth,  and  each  hand  seemed  ready  to  vouch  for 
the  justice  of  the  claim.  For  many  years,  no  such  uni- 
versal feeling  had  occupied  the  Scottish  nation. 

King  William  remained  indifferent  to  all  complaints  oi 
hardship  and  petitions  of  redress,  unless  when  he  showed 
himself  irritated  by  the  importunity  of  the  suppliants,  and 
hurt  at  being  obliged  to  evade  what  it  was  impossible  for 
him,  with  the  least  semblance  of  justice,  to  refuse.  The 
motives  of  a  Prince,  naturally  just  and  equitable,  and 
who,  himself  the  President  of  a  great  trading  nation, 
knew  well  the  injustice  which  he  was  committing,  seem 
to  have  been,  first,  a  reluctance  to  disoblige  the  Kin?  oi 
Spain,  but  secondly,  and  in  a  much  greater  degree,  what 
William  might  esteem  the  political  necessity  of  sacrificing 
the  interests  of  Scotland  to  that  of  her  jealous  neighbours 
But  what  is  unjust  can  never  be  in  a  true  sense  necessary 
and  the  sacrifice  of  principle  to  circumstances  will,  in 
every  sense,  and  in  all  cases,  be  found  as  unwise  as  it  is 
unworthy. 

It  is,  however,  only  justice  to  William  to  state  that 
though  in  the  Darien  affair  he  refused  the  Scots  the  jus- 
tice which  was  unquestionably  their  due,  he  was  never- 
theless the  only  person  in  either  kingdom  who  proposed, 
and  was  anxious  to  have  carried  into  execution,  a  union 
between  the  kingdoms,  as  the  only  effectual  means  of 
preventing  in  future  such  subjects  of  jealousy  and  con- 
tention. But  the  prejudices  of  England  as  well  as  Scot- 
land, rendered  more  inveterate  by  this  unhappy  quarrel, 
disappointed  the  King's  wise  and  sagacious  overture. 

Notwithstanding  the  interest  in  her  welfare  which  King 
William  evinced  by  desiring  the  accomplishment  of  a 
union,  the  people  of  Scotland  could  not  forget  the  wrongs 
whi«-h  they  had  received  concerning  the  Darien  project ; 
and  their  sullen  resentment  showed  itself  in  every  man- 
ner, excepting  open  rebellion,  during  the  remainder  of 
his  reign. 

In  this  humour,  Scotland  became  a  useless  possession 
ro  the  King.  William  could  not  wring  from  that  king- 
dom one  penny  for  the  public  service,  or,  what  he  would 


DEATH    OF    KING    AYILLIAM.  1S7 

nave  valued  more,  one  recruit  to  carry  on  his  continental 
campaigns.  These  hostile  feelings  subsisted  to  a  late 
period. 

William  died  in  1701,  having  for  six  years  and  up- 
wards survived  his  beloved  consort  Queen  Mary.  This 
great  King's  memory  was,  and  is  justly  honoured  in 
England,  as  their  deliverer  from  slavery,  civil  and  reli- 
gious, and  is  almost  canonized  by  the  Protestants  of  Ire- 
land, whom  he  rescued  from  subjugation,  and  elevated  to 
supremacy.  But  in  Scotland,  his  services  to  church  and 
state,  though  at  least  equal  to  those  which  he  rendered 
to  the  sister  countries  were  in  a  considerable  degree  ob- 
literated by  the  infringement  of  their  national  rights,  on 
several  occasions.  Many  persons,  as  well  as  your  grand- 
father, may  recollect,  that  on  the  5th  of  November  1788, 
when  a  full  century  had  elapsed  after  the  Revolution, 
some  friends  to  constitutional  liberty  proposed  that  the 
return  of  the  day  should  be  solemnized  by  an  agreement 
to  erect  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  King  William, 
and  the  services  which  he  had  rendered  to  the  British 
kingdoms.  At  this  period  an  anonymous  letter  appeared 
in  one  of  the  Edinburgh  newspapers,  ironically  applaud- 
ing the  undertaking,  and  proposing  as  two  subjects  of 
the  entablature,  for  the  base  of  the  projected  column,  the 
massacre  of  Glencoe,  and  the  distresses  of  the  Scottish 
colonists  at  Darien.  The  proposal  was  abandoned  as 
soon  as  this  insinuation  was  made  public.  You  may  ob- 
serve from  this  how  cautious  a  monarch  should  be  of 
committing  wrong  or  injustice,  however  strongly  recom- 
mended by  what  may  seem  political  necessity  ;  since  the 
recollection  of  such  actions  cancels  the  sense  of  the  most 
important  national  services,  as  in  Scripture  it  is  said, 
"  that  a  dead  fly  will  pollute  a  rich  and  costly  unguent." 

James  II.  died  only  four  months  before  his  son-in-law 
William.  The  King  of  France  proclaimed  James's  son, 
that  unfortunate  Prince  of  Wales,  born  in  the  very  storm 
of  the  Revolution,  as  William's  successor  in  the  king- 
doms of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  ;  a  step  which 


188  STATE    OF    AFFAIRS    IN    SCOTLAND. 

greatly  irritated  the  three  nations,  to  whom  Louis  seemed 
6y  this  act  disposed  to  nominate  a  sovereign.  Anne,  the 
sister  of  the  late  Queen  Mary,  ascended  the  throne  of 
these  kingdoms,  according  to  the  provision  made  at  the 
Revolution,  by  the  legislature  of  both  nations. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

State  of  Parties  in  Scotland — English  Act  of  Succes- 
sion—  Opposition  to  it  in  Scotland,  and  Act  of  Secu- 
rity— Trial  and  Execution  of  Captain  Green — The 
Union. 

AT  the  period  of  Queen  Anne's  accession,  Scotland 
was  divided  into  three  parties.  These  were,  first,  the 
Whigs,  staunch  favourers  of  the  Revolution,  in  the  former 
reign  called  Williamites  ;  secondly,  the  Tories,  or  Jaco- 
bites, attached  to  the  late  King  ;  and  thirdly,  a  party 
sprung  up  in  consequence  of  the  general  complaints 
arising  out  of  the  Darien  adventure,  who  associated 
themselves  for  asserting  the  rights  and  independence  of 
Scotland. 

This  latter  association  comprehended  several  men  of 
talent,  among  whom  Fletcher  of  Salton,  already  men- 
tioned, was  the  most  distinguished.  They  professed, 
that  providing  the  claims  and  rights  of  the  country  were 
ascertained  and  secured  against  the  encroaching  influence 
of  England,  they  did  not  care  whether  Anne  or  her 
brother,  the  titular  Prince  of  Wales,  was  called  to  the 
throne.  These  statesmen  called  themselves  the  Country 
Party,  as  embracing  exclusively  for  their  object  the  in- 
terests of  Scotland  alone.  This  party,  formed  upon  a 
plan  and  principle  of  political  conduct  hitherto  unknown 
in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  was  numerous,  bold,  active, 
and  eloquent  ;  and  as  a  critical  period  had  arrived,  in 
whim  the  measures  to  be  taken  in  Scotland  must  neces- 
sari  I  v  greatly  affect  the  united  empire,  her  claims  could 


THE    ACT    OP    SUCCESSION. 


169 


no  longer  be  treated  with  indifference  or  neglect,  and  her 
patriots  must  be  listened  to. 

The  conjuncture  which  gave  Scotland  new  conse« 
quence,  was  as  follows  : — When  Queen  Anne  was  named 
to  succeed  to  the  English  throne,  on  the  death  of  her 
sister  Mary,  arid  brother-in-law  William  III.,  she  had  a 
family.  But  the  last  of  her  children  had  died  before 
her  accession  to  the  crown,  and  there  were  no  hopes  of 
her  having  more  ;  it  became  therefore,  necessary  to 
make  provision  for  the  succession  to  the  crown  when  the 
new  Queen  should  die.  The  titular  Prince  of  Wales, 
was  undoubtedly  the  next  heir  ;  but  he  was  a  Catholic, 
bred  up  in  the  Court  of  France,  inheriting  all  the  extrav- 
agant claims,  and  probably  the  arbitrary  sentiments,  of 
his  father  ;  and  to  call  him  to  the  throne,  would  be  in  all 
likelihood  to  undo  ihe  settlement  between  king  and  peo- 
ple which  had  taken  place  at  the  Revolution.  The  Eng- 
lish legislature  therefore  turned  their  eyes  to  another 
descendant  of  King  James  VI.,  namely,  Sophia,  the 
Electress  Dowager  of  Hanover,  grand-daughter  of  James 
the  First  of  England  and  Sixth  of  Scotland,  by  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter,  Elizabeth,  with  the  Prince  Pala- 
tine. This  Princess  was  the  nearest  Protestant  heir  in 
blood  to  Queen  Anne,  supposing  the  claims  of  the  son  of 
James  1.1.  were  to  be  passed  over.  She  was  a  Protestant, 
and  would  necessarily,  by  accepting  the  crown,  become 
bound  to  maintain  the  civil  and  religious  rights  of  the 
nation,  as  settled  at  the  Revolution,  upon  which  her  own 
right  would  be  dependent.  For  these  weighty  reasons 
the  English  Parliament  passed  an  act  of  Succession, 
settling  the  crown,  on  the  failure  of  Queen  Anne  ami  her 
issue,  upon  the  Princess  Sophia,  Electress  Dowager  ol 
Hanover,  and  her  descendants.  This  act,  most  important 
in  its  purport  and  consequences,  was  passed  in  June  1700. 
It  became  of  the  veiy  last  importance,  to  induce  the 
legislature  of  Scotland  to  settle  the  crown  of  that  king- 
dom on  the  same  series  of  heirs  to  which  that  of  Eng- 
land was  destined.  If,  after  the  death  of  Queen  Anne, 
the  Scottish  nation,  instead  of  uniting  in  choosing  the 


190  orrosi TION   TO 

Electress  Sophia,  should  call  to  the  crown  her  >rother, 
Uie  titular  Prince  of  Wales,  the  two  kingdoms  would 
again  be  separated,  after  having  been  under  the  same  sway 
for  a  century,  and  all  the  evils  of  mutual  hostilities,  en- 
couraged by  the  alliance  and  assistance  of  France,  must 
again  distract  Great  Britain.  It  became  necessary, 
therefore,  to  try  every  species  of  persuasion  to  prevent 
a  measure  fraught  with  so  much  mischief. 

But  Scotland  was  not  in  a  humour  to  be  either  threat- 
ened or  soothed  into  the  views  of  England  on  this  impor- 
tant occasion.  The  whole  party  of  Anti-Revolutionists, 
Jacobites,  or,  as  they  called  themselves,  Cavaliers,  al- 
though they  thought  it  prudent  for  the  present  to  submit 
to  Queen  Anne,  entertained  strong  hopes  that  she  herself 
was  favourable  to  the  succession  of  her  brother  after  her 
own  death,  while  their  principles  dictated  to  them,  that 
the  wrong,  as  they  termed 'it,  done  to  James  II.  ought  as 
speedily  as  possible  to  be  atoned  for  by  the  restoration  ot 
his  son.  They  were  of  course  hostile  to  the  proposed 
Act  of  Settlement  in  favour  of  the  Electress  Sophia. 

The  country  party,  headed  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton 
and  the  Marquis  of  Tweeddale,  opposed  the  Act  of  Suc- 
cession for  different  reasons.  They  resolved  to  take  this 
favourable  opportunity  to  diminish  or  destroy  the  ascen- 
dency' which  had  been  exercised  by  England  respecting 
the  affairs  of  Scotland,  and  which,  in  the  case  of  Darien, 
had  been  so  unjustly  and  unworthily  employed  to  thwart 
and  disappoint  a  national  scheme.  They  determined  to 
obtain  for  Scotland  a  share  in  the  plantation  trade  of  Eng- 
land, and  a  freedom  from  the  clogs  imposed  by  the  Nav- 
igation Act,  and  other  regulations  enacted  to  secure  a 
monopoly  of  trade  to  the  English  nation.  Until  these 
points  were  determined  in  favour  of  Scotland,  they  re- 
solved they  would  not  agree  to  pass  the  Act  of  Succes- 
sion, boldly  alleging,  that,  unless  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  Scotland  were  to  be  respected,  it  was  of  little  conse- 
quence whether  she  chose  a  King  from  Hanover  or  Saint 
Germains. 


THE    ACT    OF    SUCCESSION.  191 

The  whole  people  of  Scotland,  excepting  those  actually 
engaged  in  the  administration,  or  expecting  favours  from 
the  court,  resolutely  adopted  the  same  sentiments,  and 
seemed  resolved  to  abide  all  the  consequences  of  a  sep- 
aration of  the  two  kingdoms,  nay  of  a  war  with  England, 
rather  than  name  the  Electress  Sophia  successor  to  the 
crown,  till  the  country  was  admitted  to  an  equitable  por- 
tion of  those  commercial  privileges  which  England  retain- 
ed with  a  tenacious  grasp.  The  crisis  seemed  an  oppor- 
tunity of  Heaven's  sending,  to  give  Scotland  consequence 
enough  to  insist  on  her  rights. 

With  this  determined  purpose,  the  country  party  in  the 
Scottish  Parliament,  instead  of  adopting,  as  the  English 
ministers  eagerly  desired  the  Protestant  Act  of  Succes- 
sion, proposed  a  measure  called  an  Act  of  Security.  By 
this  it  was  provided,  that  in  case  of  Queen  Anne's  death 
without  children,  the  whole  power  of  the  crown  should  for 
the  time,  be  lodged  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  who  were 
directed  to  choose  a  successor  of  the  royal  line  and  pro- 
testant  religion.  But  the  choice  was  to  be  made  with  this 
special  reservation,  that  the  person  so  chosen  should  take 
the  throne  only  under  such  conditions  of  government  as 
should  secure,  from  English  or  foreign  influence,  the  hon- 
our and  independence  of  the  Scottish  crown  and  nation. 
It  was  further  stipulated,  that  the  same  person  should  be 
incapable  of  holding  the  crowns  of  both  kingdoms,  unless 
the  Scottish  people  were  admitted  to  share  with  the  Eng- 
lish the  full  benefits  of  trade  and  navigation.  That  the 
nation  might  assume  an  appearance  of  strength  necessary 
to  support  such  lofty  pretensions,  it  was  provided  by  the 
same  statute,  that  the  whole  men  in  Scotland  capable  of 
bearing  arms,  should  be  trained  to  the  use  of  ihem  by 
monthly  drills  ;  and  that  the  influence  of  England  might 
expire  at  the  same  time  with  the  life  of  the  Queen,  it  was 
provided  that  all  commissions  of  the  offices  of  state,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  military  employed  by  them,  should 
cease  and  lose  effect  so  soon  as  Anne's  death  took  place. 

This  formidable  act,  which  in  fact  hurled  the  gauntlet 
of  defiance  at  the  far  stronger  kingdom  of  England,  was 


192  THE    ACT    OF    SECURITY. 

debated  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  clause  by  clause,  and 
article  by  article,  with  the  utmost  fierceness  and  tumult. 
"  We  were  often,"  says  an  eye  witness,  "  in  the  form  01 
a  Polish  Diet,  with  our  swords  in  our  hands,  or  at  least 
our  hands  on  our  swords." 

The  Act  of  Security  was  carried  in  Parliament  by  a 
decided  majority,  but  the  Queen's  Commissioner  refused 
the  royal  assent  to  so  violent  a  statute.  The  Parliament 
on  their  part  would  grant  no  supplies,  and  when  such  were 
requested  by  the  members  of  administration,  the  hall  rung 
with  the  shouts  of  "  Liberty  before  subsidy  !"  The  Par- 
liament was  adjourned  amidst  the  mutual  discontent  of  both 
ministers  and  opposition. 

The  dispute  betwixt  the  two  nations  was  embroiled 
during  the  recess'  of  Parliament  by  intrigues.  Simon 
Fraser  of  Beaufort,  afterwards  Lord  Lovat,  had  under- 
taken to  be  the  agent  of  France  in  a  Jacobite  conspiracy, 
which  he  afterwards  discovered  to  government,  involving 
in  his  accusation  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  and  other  noble- 
men. The  persons  accused  defended  themselves  by  al- 
leging that  the  plot  was  a  mere  pretext,  devised  by  the 
Duke  of  Queensberry,  to  whom  it  had  been  discovered 
by  Fraser.  The  English  House  of  Peers,  in  allusion  to 
this  genuine  or  pretended  discovery,  passed  a  vote,  that  a 
dangerous  plot  had  existed  in  Scotland,  and  that  it  had  its 
origin  in  the  desire  to  overthrow  the  Protestant  succession 
in  that  nation.  This  resolution  was  highly  resented  by 
the  Scotch,  being  considered  as  an  unauthorized  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  English  Peers,  with  the  concerns 
of  another  kingdom.  Every  thing  seemed  tending  to  a 
positive  rupture  between  the  sister  kingdoms  ;  and  yet, 
my  dear  child,  it  was  from  this  state  of  things  that  the 
healing  measure  of  an  incorporating  Union  finally  took 
its  rise. 

In  the  very  difficult  and  critical  conduct  which  the 
Queen  had  to  observe  betwixt  two  high-spirited  nations 
whose  true  interest  it  was  to  enter  into  the  strictest  friend- 
ship and  alliance,  but  whose  irritated  passions  for  the 
present  breathed  nothing  but  animosity,  Arne  had  the  good 


THE    ACT    OF    SECURITY.  193 

fortune  to  be  assisted  by  the  wise  counsels  of  Godolphinj 
one  of  the  most  sagacious  and  profound  ministers  who 
ever  advised  a  crowned  head.  By  his  recommendation, 
the  Queen  proceeded  upon  a  plan,  which,  while  at  first 
sight  it  seemed  to  widen  the  breach  between  the  two  na- 
tions, was  in  the  end  to  prove  the  means  of  compelling 
both  to  lay  aside  their  mutual  prejudices  and  animosities. 
The  scheme  of  a  Union  was  to  be  proceeded  upon,  like 
that  of  breaking  two  spirited  horses  to  join  in  drawing 
the  same  yoke,  when  it  is  of  importance  to  teach  them, 
that  by  moving  in  unison,  and  at  an  equal  pace,  the  task 
will  be  easy  to  them  both.  Godolphin's  first  advice  to 
the  Queen  was,  to  suffer  the  Scottish  Act  of  Security  to 
pass.  The  English,  in  their  superior  wealth  and  impor- 
tance, had  for  many  years  looked  with  great  contempt  on 
the  Scottish  nation  as  compared  with  themselves,  and 
were  prejudiced  against  the  Union,  as  a  man  of  wealth 
and  importance  might  be  against  a  match  with  a  female 
in  an  inferior  rank  of  society.  It  was  necessary  to  change 
this  feeling,  and  to  show  plainly  to  the  English  people, 
that,  if  not  allied  to  the  Scotch  in  intimate  friendship  they 
might  prove  dangerous  enemies. 

The  Act  of  Security  finally  passed  in  1704,  having, 
according  to  Godolphin's  advice,  received  the  Queen's 
assent ;  and  the  Scottish  Parliament,  as  the  provisions  ot 
the  statute  bore,  immediately  began  to  train  their  coun- 
trymen, who  have  always  been  attached  to  the  use  of  arms, 
and  easily  submit  to  military  discipline. 

The  effect  of  these  formidable  preparations,  was  to 
arouse  the  English  from  their  indifference  to  Scottish  af- 
fairs. Scotland  might  be  poor,  but  her  numerous  levies, 
under  sanction  of  the  Act  of  Security,  were  not  the  less 
formidable.  A  sudden  inroad  on  Newcastle,  as  in  the 
great  Civil  War,  would  distress  London  by  interrupting 
the  coal  trade  ;  and  whatever  might  be  the  event,  the 
prospect  of  a  civil  war,  as  it  might  be  termed,  after  so  long 
a  tract  of  peace,  was  doubtful  and  dangerous. 


19 1  TRIAL    OF    CAPTAIN    GUIiEIV. 

The  Englisli  Parliament,  therefore,  showed  a  mixture 
of  resentment  tempered  with  a  desire  of  conciliation. 
They  enacted  regulations  against  the  Scottish  trade,  and 
ordered  the  Border  towns  to  be  fortified  and  garrisoned  ; 
but  they  declined,  at  the  same  time,  the  proposed  measure 
of  inquiring  concerning  the  person  who  advised  the  Queen 
to  consent  to  the  Act  of  Security.  In  abstaining  from  this, 
they  paid  respect  to  Scottish  independence,  arid  at  the  same 
time,  by  empowering  the  Queen  to  nominate  Commis- 
sioners for  a  Union,  they  seemed  to  hold  out  the  olive 
branch  to  the  sister  kingdom. 

While  this  lowering  hurricane  seemed  to  be  gaining 
strength  betwixt  the  two  nations,  an  incident  took  place 
which  greatly  inflamed  their  mutual  resentment. 

A  Scottish  ship,  equipped  for  a  voyage  to  India,  had 
been  seized  and  detained  in  the  Thames,  at  the  instance 
of  the  English  East  India  Company.  The  Scots  were 
not  in  a  humour  to  endure  this  ;  and  by  way  of  reprisal, 
they  took  possession  of  a  large  Indian  trader  called  the 
Worcester,  which  had  been  forced  into  the  Frith  of  Forth 
by  unfavourable  weather.  There  was  something  suspi- 
cious about  this  vessel.  Her  men  were  numerous,  and  had 
the  air  of  pirates.  She  was  better  provided  with  guu- 
and  ammunition,  than  is  usual  for  vessels  fitted  out  mere- 
ly for  objects  of  trade.  A  cipher  was  found  among  her 
papers,  for  corresponding  with  the  owners.  All  this  inti- 
mated, that  the  Worcester,  as  was  not  uncommon,  under 
the  semblance  of  a  trader,  had  been  equipped  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exercising,  when  in  remote  Indian  latitudes,  the 
profession  of  a  bucanier,  or  pirate. 

One  of  the  seamen  belonging  to  this  ship,  named  Haines, 
having  been  ashore  with  some  company,  and  drinking 
rather  freely,  fell  into  a  fit  of  melancholy,  an  effect  which 
liquor  produces  on  some  constitutions,  and  in  that  humour 
told  those  who  were  present,  that  it  was  a  wonder  his 
captain  and  crew  were  not  lost  at  sea,  considering  the 
wickedness  which  had  been  done  aboard  that  ship  which 
was  lying  in  the  roadstead.  Upon  these  and  similar  hints 
of  something  do  ibtful  or  illegal,  the  Scottish  authorities 


TRIAL    OF    CAPTAIN    GUEKtf.  195 

imprisoned  the  officers  and  sailors  of  the  Worcester,  and 
examined  them  rigorously,  in  order  to  discover  what  the 
expressions  of  their  shipmate  referred  to. 

Among  other  persons  interrogated,  a  black  slave  of  the 
Captain,  (surejy  a  most  suspicions  witness,)  told  a  story, 
Jiat  the  Worcester,  during  their  late  voyage,  had,  upon  the 
Coromandel  coast,  near  Calicut,  engaged,  and  finally 
ooarded  and  captured,  a  vessel  bearing  a  red  flag,  and 
manned  with  English,  or  Scotch,  or  at  least  with  people 
speaking  the  English  language  ;  that  they  had  thrown  the 
crew  overboard,  and  disposed  of  the  vessel  and  the  cargo 
to  a  native  merchant.  This  account  was  in  some  degree 
countenanced  by  the  surgeon  of  the  Worcester,  who,  in 
confirmation  of  the  slave's  story,  said,  that,  being  on  shore 
in  a  harbour  on  the  coast  of  Malabar,  he  heard  great  guns 
at  sea  $  and  saw  the  Worcester,  which  had  been  out  on 
a  cruize,  come  in  next  morning  with  another  vessel  under 
her  stern,  which  he  understood  was  afterwards  sold  to  a 
native  merchant.  Four  days  afterwards  he  went  on  board, 
and  finding  her  decks  lumbered  with  goods,  made  some 
inquiry  how  they  had  come  by  them,  but  was  checked  for 
doing  so  by  the  mate.  Farther,  the  surgeon  stated,  that 
he  was  called  to  dress  the  wounds  of  several  of  the  men, 
but  the  captain  and  mate  forbade  him  to  ask,  or  the  pa- 
tients to  answer,  how  they  came  by  their  hurts. 

Another  black  servant,  or  slave,  had  not  himself  seen 
the  capture  of  the  supposed  ship,  or  the  death  of  the 
crew,  but  had  been  told  of  it  by  the  first  informer,  short- 
ly after  it  happened.  Lastly  a  witness  declared  that 
Green,  the  captain  of  the  vessel,  had  shown  him  a  seal 
bearing  the  arms  of  the  Scottish  African  and  Indian 
Company. 

This  story  was  greatly  too  vague  to  have  been  admitted 
to  credit  upon  any  occasion  when  men's  minds  were  cool 
and  their  judgments  unprejudiced.  But  the  Scottish 
nation  was  almost  frantic  with  resentment  on  the  subject 
of  Darien.  One  of  the  vessels  belonging  to  that  unfor- 
tunate Company,  called  the  Rising  Sun,  and  commanded 
by  Captain  Robert  Drummond,  had  been  amissing  foi 


196  TRIAL    OF    CAPTAIN    GREEN. 

some  time  ;  and  it  was  received  as  indisputable  truth,  thai 
this  must  have  been  the  vessel  taken  by  the  Worcester, 
and  that  her  master  and  men  had  been  murdered,  accord- 
ing to  the  black  slave's  declaration. 

Under  this  cloud  of  prejudice,  Green,  with  his  mate 
and  crew,  fifteen  men  in  all,  were  brought  to  trial  for 
their  lives.  Three  of  these  unfortunate  men,  Linstead, 
the  supercargo's  mate,  Bruckley,  the  cooper  of  the  Wor- 
cester, and  Haines,  whose  gloomy  hints  gave  the  first 
suspicion,  are  said  to  have  uttered  declarations  before  trial, 
confirming  the  truth  of  the  charge,  and  admitting  that  ihe 
vessel  so  seized  upon  was  the  Rising  Sun,  and  that  Cap- 
tain Robert  Drum  mood  and  his  crew  were  the  persons 
murdered  in  the  course  of  that  act  of  piracy.  But  Haiues, 
seems  to  have  laboured  under  attacks  of  hypochondria, 
which  sometimes  induce  men  to  suppose  themselves  spec- 
tators and  accomplices  in  crimes  which  have  no  real  ex- 
istence. Linstead,  like  the  surgeon  May,  only  spoke  to  a 
hearsay  story,  and  that  of  Bruckley  was  far  from  being 
clear.  It  will  hereafter  be  shown,  that  if  any  ship  were 
actually  taken  by  Green  and  his  crew,  it  could  not  be  that 
of  Captain  Drummond,  which  met  a  different  fate.  This 
makes  it  probable,  that  these  confessions  were  made  by 
the  prisoners  only  in  the  hope  of  saving  their  own  lives, 
endangered  by  the  fury  of  the  Scottish  people.  And  it 
is  certain  that  none  of  these  declarations  were  read,  or 
produced  as  evidence,  in  court. 

The  trial  of  these  persons  took  place  before  the  High 
Court  of  Admiralty  ;  and  a  jury,  upon  the  sole  evidence 
of  the  black  slave, — for  the  rest  was  made  up  of  sug- 
gestions, insinuations,  and  reports,  taken  from  hearsay, — 
brought  in  a  verdict  of  Guilty  against  Green  and  all  his 
crew.  The  government  were  disposed  to  have  obtained  a 
reprieve  from  the  crown  for  the  prisoners,  whose  guilt  was 
so  very  doubtful  ;  but  the  mob  of  Edinburgh,  at  all  times 
a  fierce  and  intractable  multitude,  arose  in  great  numbers, 
and  demanded  their  lives  with  such  an  appearance  of  un- 
controllable fury,  that  the  authorities  became  intimidated, 
and  yielded.  Captain  Green  himself,  his  principal  mate 


THE    UNION.  197 

and  another  of  the  condemned  persons,  were  dragged  to 
Leith,  loaded  by  the  way  with  curses  and  execrations, 
and  even  struck  at  and  pelted  by  the  furious  populace  ; 
and  finally  executed  in  terms  of  their  sentence,  denying 
with  their  last  breath  the  crime  which  they  were  accus- 
ed of. 

The  ferment  in  Scotland  was  somewhat  appeased  by 
this  act  of  vengeance,  for  it  has  no  title  to  be  called  a 
deed  of  justice.  The  remainder  of  Green's  crew  were 
dismissed  after  a  long  imprisonment,  during  the  course  of 
which  cooler  reflection  induced  doubts  of  the  validity  of 
the  sentence.  At  a  much  later  period  it  appeared,  that, 
if  the  Worcester  had  committed  an  act  of  piracy  upon 
any  vessel,  it  could  not  at  least  have  been  on  the  Rising 
Sun,  which  ship  had  been  cast  away  on  the  island  of 
Madagascar,  when  the  crew  were  cut  off  by  the  natives, 
excepting  Captain  Drummond  himself,  whom  Drury,  an 
English  seaman  in  similar  circumstances  found  alive  upon 
the  island.* 

This  unhappy  affair,  in  which  the  Scotch,  by  their  pre- 
cipitate and  unjust  procedure,  gave  the  deepest  offence 
to  the  English  nation,  tended  greatly  to  increase  the  mu- 
tual prejudices  and  animosity  of  the  people  of  both  coun- 
tries against  each  other.  But  the  very  extremity  of  their 
mutual  enmity  inclined  wise  men  of  both  countries  to  be 
more  disposed  to  submit  to  a  Union,  with  all  the  incon- 
veniences and  difficulties  which  must  attend  the  progress 
of  such  a  measure,  rather  than  that  the  two  divisions  of  the 
same  island  should  again  engage  in  intestine  war. 

The  principal  obstacle  to  a  Union,  so  far  as  England 
was  concerned,  lay  in  a  narrow-minded  view  of  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  the  nation,  and  a  fear  of  the  loss  which 
might  accrue  by  admitting  the  Scotch  to  a  share  of  their 
plantation  trade,  and  other  privileges.  But  it  was  not 
difficult  to  show,  even  to  the  persons  most  interested,  thai 


*  Tb.s,  however,  sur  poses  Drury's  Adventures  in  Madagascai  to  be  a  gen- 
aim  production,  of  winch  there  may  be  doubts. 


193  Tin;   UNION 

public  credit  and  private  property  would  suffer  immeas- 
urably more  by  a  war  with  Scotland,  than  by  sacrificing 
to  peace  and  unity  some  share  in  the  general  commerce. 
It  is  true,  the  opulence  of  England,  its  command  of  men, 
the  many  victorious  troops  which  she  then  had  in  the  field, 
under  the  best  commanders  in  Europe,  seemed  to  ensure 
final  victory,  if  the  two  nations  should  come  to  open  war. 
But  a  war  with  Scotland  was  always  more  easily  begun 
than  ended  ;  and  wise  men  saw  it  would  be  better  to  se- 
cure the  friendship  of  that  kingdom  by  an  agreement  on 
the  basis  of  mutual  advantage,  than  to  incur  the  risk  of 
invading,  and  the  final  necessity  of  securing  it  as  a  con- 
quered country,  by  means  of  forts  and  garrisons.  In  the 
one  case,  Scotland  would  become  an  integral  part  of  the 
empire  ;  in  the  other,  must  long  remain  a  discontented 
and  disaffected  province,  in  which  the  exiled  family  of 
James  II.  and  his  allies  the  French,  would  always  find 
friends  and  correspondents.  English  statesmen  were 
therefore  desirous  of  a  Union.  But  they  stipulated  that 
it  should  be  of  the  most  intimate  kind  ;  such  as  should 
free  England  from  the  great  inconvenience  arising  from 
the  Scottish  nation  possessing  a  separate  legislature  and 
constitution  of  her  own  ;  and  demanded  that  the  supreme 
power  of  the  state  should  be  reposed  in  a  Parliament  of 
the  united  countries,  to  which  Scotland  might  send  a  cer- 
tain proportion  of  members,  but  which  should  meet  in  the 
English  capital,  and  be  of  course  more  immediately  under 
the  influence  of  the  English  councils  and  interests. 

The  Scottish  nation,  on  the  other  hand,  which  had  of 
late  become  very  sensitive  to  the  benefits  of  foreign  trade, 
were  extremely  desirous  of  a  federative  union,  which 
should  admit  them  to  these  advantages.  But  while  they 
grasped  at  a  share  in  the  English  trade,  they  desired  that 
Scotland  should  retain  her  rights  as  a  separate  kingdom, 
making  as  heretofore  her  own  laws,  and  adopting  her  own 
public  measures,  uncontrolled  by  the  domination  of  En-. 
e;land.  Here,  therefore,  occurred  a  point  of  dispute, 
which  was  necessarily  to  be  settled  previous  to  the  farthei 
progress  of  the  treaty. 


THE    UNION.  J99 

In  order  to  adjust  the  character  of  the  proposed  Union- 
treaty  in  this  and  other  particulars,  Commissioners  for 
both  kingdoms  were  appointed  to  make  a  preliminary  in- 
quiry, and  report  upon  the  articles  which  ought  to  be 
adopted  as  the  foundation  of  the  measure. 

The  English  and  Scottish  Commissioners  being  both 
chosen  by  the  Queen,  that  is,  by  Godolphin  and  the  Queen's 
ministers,  were  indeed  taken  from  different  parties,  but 
carefully  selected  so  as  to  preserve  a  majority  of  those 
who  could  be  reckoned  upon  as  friendly  to  the  treaty,  and 
who  would  be  sure  to  do  their  utmost  to  remove  such  ob- 
stacles, as  might  arise  in  the  discussion. 

I  will  briefly  tell  you  the  result  of  these  numerous  and 
anxious  debates.  The  Scotch  Commissioners,  after  a 
vain  struggle,  were  compelled  to  submit  to  an  incorporat- 
ing Union,  as  that  which  alone  would  ensure  the  purposes 
of  combining  England  and  Scotland  into  one  single  nation, 
to  be  governed  in  its  political  measures  by  the  same  Par- 
liament. It  was  agreed,  that,  in  contributing  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  general  expenses  of  the  kingdom,  Scotland 
should  pay  a  certain  proportion  of  taxes  which  were  ad- 
justed by  calculation.  But  in  consideration  that  the  Scotch, 
whose  revenue,  though  small,  was  unencumbered,  must 
thereafter  become  liable  for  a  share  of  the  debt  which 
England  had  incurred  since  the  Revolution,  a  large  sum 
of  ready  money  was  to  be  advanced  to  Scotland  as  an 
equivalent  for  thnt  burden,  which  sum,  however,  was  to  be 
repaid  to  England  gradually  from  the  Scottish  revenue. 
So  far  all  went  on  pretty  well  between  the  two  sets  of 
Commissioners.  The  English  statesmen  also  consented, 
with  no  great  scruple,  that  Scotland  should  retain  her  own 
national  Presbyterian  Church,  her  own  system  of  civil  and 
municipal  laws,  which  is  totally  different  from  that  of 
Enghnd,  and  her  own  courts  for  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice. The  only  addition  to  her  judicial  establishment; 
was  the  erection  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  to  decide  in 
fiscal  matters,  and  which  follows  the  English  forms. 

But  the  treaty  was  nearly  broken  off,  when  the  English 
announced,  that,  in  the  Parliament  of  the  United  King- 


200  THE    UNION. 

doms,  Scotland  should  only  enjoy  a  representation  equal 
to  one  thirteenth  of  the  whole  number.  The  proposal 
was  received  by  the  Scottish  Commissioners  with  a  burst 
of  surprise  and  indignation.  It  was  loudly  urged  that  a 
kingdom  resigning  her  ancient  independence,  should  ;it 
least  obtain  in  the  great  national  council  a  representation 
bearing  the  same  proportion  which  the  population  of  Scot- 
land did  to  that  of  England,  which  was  one  to  six.  It 
this  rule,  which  seems  the  fairest  that  could  be  found,  had 
been  adopted,  Scotland  would  have  sent  sixty-six  mem- 
bers to  the  United  Parliament.  But  the  English  refused 
peremptorily  to  consent  to  the  admission  of  more  than 
forty-five  at  the  very  utmost  ;  and  the  Scottish  Commis- 
sioners were  informed  that  they  must  either  acquiesce  in 
this  proposal,  or  declare  the  treaty  at  an  end.  With  more 
prudence,  perhaps,  than  spirit,  they  chose  to  yield  the 
point,  rather  than  run  the  risk  of  frustrating  the  Union 
entirely. 

The  Scottish  Peerage  were  to  preserve  all  the  other 
privileges  of  their  rank,  but  their  right  of  sitting  in  Parlia- 
ment was  to  be  greatly  limited.  Only  sixteen  of  their 
number  were  to  enjoy  seats  in  the  British  House  of  Lords, 
and  these  were  to  be  chosen  by  election  from  the  whole 
body.  Such  Peers  as  were  amongst  the  number  of  Com- 
missioners were  induced  to  consent  to  this  degradation  of 
their  order,  by  the  assurance  that  they  themselves  should 
be  created  British  Peers,  so  as  to  give  to  them  personally 
by  charter,  the  right  which  the  sixteen  could  only  acquire 
by  election. 

To  smooth  over  the  difficulties,  and  reconcile  the  Scot- 
tish Commissioners  to  the  conditions  which  appeared  hard 
to  them,  and  above  all,  to  afford  them  some  compensation 
for  the  odium  which  they  were  certain  to  incur,  they  were 
given  to  understand  that  a  considerable  sum  out  of  the 
equivalent  money  would  be  secured  for  their  peculiar 
gratification.  We  might  have  compassionated  these  states- 
men, Tiany  of  whom  were  able  and  eminent  men,  had 
they,  from  the  sincere  conviction  that  Scotland  was  under 
vhe  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  Union  at  all  even's,  ap- 


THE    UNION.  201 

repted  the  terms  which  the  English  Commissioners  dic- 
tated. But  when  they  united  with  the  degradation  of  their 
country,  the  prospect  of  obtaining  personal  wealth  and 
private  emoluments,  we  cannot  acquit  them  of  the  charge 
of  having  sold  their  own  honour  and  that  of  Scotland.  This 
point  of  the  treaty  was  kept  strictly  secret,  nor  was  it  fixed 
how  the  rest  of  the  equivalent  was  to  he  disposed  of.  So 
there  remained  a  disposable  fund  of  about  three  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  pounds,  which  was  to  be  bestowed  on 
Scotland  in  indemnification  for  the  losses  of  Darien,  and 
other  gratuities,  upon  which  all  those  inclined  to  sell  their 
votes,  and  whose  interest  was  worth  purchasing,  might  fix 
their  hopes  and  expectations. 

When  the  articles,  agreed  upon  by  the  Commissioners 
as  the  basis  of  a  Union,  were  made  public  in  Scotland,  it 
became  plain  that  few  suffrages  would  be  obtained  in  fa- 
vour of  the  measure,  save  by  menaces  or  bribery,  unless 
perhaps  from  a  very  few,  who,  casting  their  eyes  far  be- 
yond the  present  time,  considered  the  uniting  of  the  island 
of  Britain  as  an  object  which  could  not  be  purchased  too 
dearly.  The  people  in  general,  had  awaited,  in  a  state 
of  feverish  anxiety,  the  nature  of  the  propositions  on 
which  this  great  national  treaty  was  to  rest  j  but  even 
th-»se  who  had  expected  the  most  unfavourable  terms, 
were  not  prepared  for  the  rigour  of  the  conditions  which 
had  been  adopted,  and  the  promulgation  of  the  articles 
gave  rise  to  the  most  general  expressions,  not  only  of 
discontent,  but  of  rage  and  fury  against  the  proposed 
Union. 

There  was  indeed  no  party  or  body  of  men  in  Scotland, 
who  saw  their  hopes  or  wishes  realized  in  the  plan  adopted 
by  the  Commissioners.  I  will  show  you,  in  a  few  words 
their  several  causes  of  dissatisfaction  : 

The  Jacobites  saw  in  the  proposed  Union,  an  effectual 
bar  to  the  restoration  of  the  Stewart  family.  If  the  treaty 
was  adopted,  the  two  kingdoms  must  necessarily  be  gov- 
erned by  the  English  act,  settling  the  succession  of  the 
rrown  on  the  Electors  of  Hanover.  They  were  there- 
fore resolved  to  oppose  it  to  the  utmost.  The  Episco- 
007 


202  THE    UNION. 

palian  clergy  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  a  separate 
interest  from  the  Jacobites,  and,  like  them,  dreaded  the 
change  of  succession  which  must  take  place  at  the  death 
of  Queen  Anne.  The  Highland  chiefs,  also,  the  most 
zealous  and  formidable  portion  of  the  Jacobite  interest, 
anticipated  in  the  Union  a  fall  of  their  own  patriarchal 
power.  They  remembered  the  times  of  Cromwell,  who 
bridled  the  Highlands  by  garrisons  filled  with  soldiers,  and 
foresaw  that  when  Scotland  came  to  be  a  part  of  the 
British  nation,  a  large  standing  army,  at  the  constant  com- 
mand of  Government,  must  gradually  suppress  the  war- 
like independence  of  the  clans. 

The  Presbyterians  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  both 
clergy  and  laity,  were  violently  opposed  to  the  Union, 
from  the  natural  apprehension,  that  so  intimate  an  incor- 
poration of  two  nations  was  likely  to  end  in  a  uniformity 
of  worship,  and  that  the  hierarchy  of  England  would,  in 
that  case,  be  extended  to  the  weaker  and  poorer  country 
of  Scotland,  to  the  destruction  of  the  present  establish- 
ment. This  fear  seemed  -the  better  founded,  as  the 
Bishops  or  Lords  Spiritual  formed  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  what  was  proposed  to  be  the  legislation  of  both 
kingdoms  ;  so  that  Scotland,  in  the  event  of  the  Union 
taking  place,  must  to  a  certain  extent,  fall  under  the  do- 
minion of  prelates.  These  apprehensions  extended  to 
the  Cameronians  themselves,  who,  though  having  so  many 
reasons  to  dread  the  restoration  of  the  Stewarts,  and  to 
favour  the  Protestant  succession,  looked,  nevertheless,  on 
the  proposed  Union  as  almost  a  worse  evil,  and  a  still 
further  departure  from  the  engagements  of  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  which,  forgotten  by  all  other  par- 
ties in  the  nation,  was  still  their  professed  rule  of  action. 

The  nobility  and  barons  of  the  kingdom  were  alarmed, 
lest  they  should  be  deprived,  after  the  example  of  Eng- 
and,  of  those  territorial  jurisdictions  and  privileges  which 
preserved  their  feudal  influence  ;  while,  at  the  same  time, 
ihe  transference  of  the  seat  of  government  to  London, 
must  necessarily  be  accompanied  with  the  abolition  ol 
»nany  posts  and  places  of  honour  and  profit,  ronne  -.ted 


THE    UN10Y.  203 

the  administration  of  Scotland,  as  a  separate  king- 
dom, and  which  were  naturally  bestowed  on  her  nooility. 
The  Government,  therefore,  must  have  so  much  less  to 
giveaway,  the  men  of  influence  so  much  less  to  receive  ; 
and  those  who  might  have  expected  to  hold  situations  ol 
power  and  authority  in  their  own  country  while  indepen- 
dent, were  likely  to  lose  by  the  Union  both  power  and 
patronage. 

The  persons  who  were  interested  in  commerce  com- 
plained, that  Scotland  was  only  tantalised  by  a  treaty, 
which  held  out  to  the  kingdom  the  prospect  of  a  free 
trade,  when,  at  the  same  time,  it  subjected  them  to  all  the 
English  burdens  and  duties,  raising  the  expenses  of  du- 
ties to  a  height  which  the  country  afforded  no  capital  to 
defray  ;  so  that  the  apprehension  became  general,  that 
they  would  lose  the  separate  trade  which  they  now  pos- 
sessed, without  obtaining  any  beneficial  share  in  that  of 
England. 

Again  the  whole  body  of  Scottish  trades-people,  arti- 
snns,  and  the  like,  particularly  those  of  the  metropolis, 
foresaw,  that  in  consequence  of  the  Union,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  nobility  and  gentry  would  be  withdrawn 
from  their  native  country,  some  to  attend  their  duties  in 
the  British  Parliament,  others  from  the  various  motives  of 
ambition,  pleasure,  or  vanity,  which  induce  persons  of 
comparative  wealth  to  frequent  courts  and  reside  in  cap- 
itals. The  consequences  to  be  apprehended  were,  that 
the  Scottish  metropolis  must  be  deserted  by  all  that  were 
wealthy  and  noble,  and  deprived  at  once  of  the  consider- 
a'ion  and  advantages  of  a  capital  ;  and  that  the  country 
nr/ist  suffer  in  proportion,  by  the  larger  proprietors  ceasing 
i<-  reside  on  their  estates,  and  going  to  spend  their  rents 
i.i  England. 

These  were  evils  apprehended  by  particular  classes  of 
Tien.  But  the  loss  and  disgrace  to  be  sustained  by  the 
ancient  kingdom,  which  had  so  long  defended  her  liberty 
and  independence  against  England,  was  common  to  all  her 
chilli  en  ;  and  should  Scotland  at  this  crisis  voluntarily 
sun  3nder  her  rank  among  nations,  for  no  immediate  ad- 


204  1  HE    UNION. 

vantages  that  could  be  anticipated,  excepting  su/h  &s 
night  be  obtained  by  private  individuals,  who  had  votes 
to  sell,  and  consciences  that  permitted  them  to  traffic  in 
such  ware,  each  inhabitant  of  Scotland  must  have  his 
.hare  in  the  apprehended  dishonour.  Perhaps  too,  those 
ielt  it  most,  who,  having  no  estates  or  wealth  to  lose, 
t.laimed  yet  a  share,  with  the  greatest  and  the  richest,  in 
the  honour  of  their  common  country. 

The  feelings  of  national  pride  were  inflamed  by  those 
of  national  prejudice  and  resentment.  The  Scottish  peo- 
ple complained  that  they  were  not  only  required  to  sur- 
render their  public  rights,  but  to  yield  them  up  to  the  very 
nation  who  had  been  most  malevolent  to  them  in  all  re- 
spects ;  who  had  been  their  constant  enemies  during  a 
thousand  years  of  almost  continual  war  ;  and  who,  since 
they  were  united  under  the  same  crown,  had  shown  in  the 
massacre  of  Glencoe,  and  the  disasters  of  Darien,  at  what 
a  slight  price  they  held  the  lives  and  rights  of  their  north- 
ern neighbours.  The  hostile  measures  adopted  by  the 
English  Parliament, — their  declarations  against  the  Scot- 
tish trade, — their  preparations  for  war  on  the  Border, — 
were  all  circumstances  which  envenomed  the  animosity  or 
the  people  ;  while  the  general  training  which  had  taken 
place  under  the  Act  of  Security,  made  them  confident  in 
their  own  military  strength,  and  disposed  to  stand  their 
ground  at  all  hazards. 

Moved  by  anxiety,  doubt,  and  apprehension,  an  unpre- 
cedented confluence  of  people,  of  every  rank,  sex,  and  age, 
thronged  to  Edinburgh  from  all  corners  of  Scotland,  to 
attend  the  meeting  of  the  Union  Parliament,  which  met 
3d  October,  1706. 

The  Parliament  was  divided,  generally  speaking,  into 
three  parties.  The  first  were  the  courtiers  or  followers 
of  Government,  determined  at  all  events  to  carry  through 
the  Union,  on  the  terms  proposed  by  the  Commissioners. 
This  party  was  led  by  the  Duke  of  Queensberry,  Lord 
High  Commissioner,  a  person  of  talents  and  accomplish- 
ments, and  great  political  address,  who  had  filled  the 
highest  situations  during  the  ast  reigns.  He  wa?  assisted 


THE    UNION.  205 

by  the  Earl  of  Mar  Secretary  of  State,  who  was  ins- 
pected to  be  naturally  much  disposed  to  favour  the  exiled 
family  of  Stewart,  but  who,  sacrificing  his  political  prin- 
ciples to  love  of  power  or  of  emolument,  was  deeply  con- 
cerned in  the  underhand  and  private  management  by  which 
the  Union  was  carrying  through.  But  it  was  chiefly  the 
Earl  of  Stair,  long  left  out  of  administration  on  account  of 
his  scandalous  share  in  the  massacre  of  Glencoe,  and  the 
affair  of  Darien,  but  now  trusted  and  employed,  who,  by 
his  address,  eloquence,  and  talents,  contributed  to  accom- 
plish the  Union,  and  gained  on  that  account,  from  a  great 
majority  of  his  displeased  countrymen,  the  popular  nick- 
name of  the  Curse  of  Scotland. 

The  party  opposing  the  Union  consisted  of  those  who 
were  attached  to  the  Jacobite  interest,  joined  with  the 
country  party,  who,  like  Fletcher  of  Salton,  resisted  the 
Union,  not  on  the  grounds  of  the  succession  to  the  crown, 
but  as  destructive  of  the  national  independence  of  the 
kingdom.  They  were  headed  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
the  premier  Peer  of  Scotland,  an  excellent  speaker,  and 
admirably  qualified  to  act  as  the  head  of  a  party  in  ordi- 
nary times,  but  possessed  of  such  large  estates  as  render- 
ed him  unwilling  to  take  any  decisive  steps  by  which  his 
property  might  be  endangered.  To  this  it  seems  to  have 
been  owing,  that  the  more  decided  and  effectual  meas- 
ures, by  which  alone  the  Union  treaty  might  have  been 
defeated,  though  they  often  gained  his  approbation  for  a 
time,  never  had  his  hearty  or  effectual  support  in  the  end. 

There  was  a  third  party,  greatly  smaller  than  either  of 
the  others,  but  which  secured  to  themselves  a  degree  of 
consequence  by  keeping  together,  and  affecting  to  act  in- 
dependently of  the  rest,  from  which  they  were  termed 
the  Squadrone  Volante.  They  were  headed  by  the  Mar- 
quis of  Tweeddale,  and  consisted  of  the  members  of  an 
administration  of  which  the  Marquis  had  been  the  head, 
but  which  were  turned  out  of  office  to  make  way  for  the 
Duke  of  Queensberry  and  the  present  ruling  party 
These  politicians  were  neither  favourers  of  the  Court  which 


206  THK    UNION. 

had  dismissed  them,  nor  of  the  opposition  party.  Tu 
speak  plainly,  in  a  case  where  their  country  demanded  of 
them  a  decisive  opinion,  the  Sijuadrone  seem  to  have 
waited  to  see  what  course  of  conduct  would  best  serve 
their  own  interest.  We  shall  presently  see  that  they  were 
at  least  decided  to  support  the  treaty  hy  a  reconciliation 
with  the  court. 

The  unpopularity  of  the  proposed  measure  throughout 
Scotland  in  general,  was  soon  made  evident  by  the  temper 
of  the  people  of  Edinburgh.  The  citizens  of  the  better 
class  exclaimed  against  the  favourers  of  the  Union,  as 
willing  to  surrender  the  sovereignty  of  Scotland  to  tier 
ancient  rival,  whilst  the  populace  stated  the  same  idea  in 
a  manner  more  obvious  to  their  gross  capacities,  and  cried 
out  that  the  Scottish  crown,  sceptre,  and  sword,  were 
about  to  be  transferred  to  England,  as  they  had  been  in 
the  time  of  the  usurper,  Edward  Longshanks. 

On  23d  October,  the  popular  fury  was  at  its  height. 
The  people  crowded  together  in  the  High  Street  and  Par- 
liament Square,  and  greeted  their  representatives  as  friends 
or  enemies  to  their  country,  according  as  they  opposed  or 
favoured  the  Union.  The  Commissioner  was  bitterly  re- 
viled and  hooted  at,  while,  in  the  evening  of  the  day,  sev- 
eral hundred  persons  escorted  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  to 
his  lodgings,  encouraging  him  by  loud  huzzas  to  stand  by 
the  cause  of  national  independence.  The  rabble  next 
assailed  the  house  of  the  Lord  Provost,  destroyed  the 
windows,  and  broke  open  the  doors,  and  threatened  him 
with  instant  death  as  a  favourer  of  the  obnoxious  treaty. 

Other  acts  of  riot  were  committed,  which  wero  not  ul- 
timately for  the  advantage  of  the  anti-unionists,  since  they 
were  pleaded  as  reasons  for  introducing  strong  bodies  ol 
troops  into  the  city.  These  mounted  guard  in  the  prin- 
cipal streets  ;  and  the  Commissioner  dared  only  pass  to 
his  coach  through  a  lane  of  soldiers  under  arms,  and  was 
then  driven  to  his  lodgings  in  the  Canongate  amidst  re- 
peated volleys  of  stones  and  roars  of  execration.  The 
l)uke  of  Hami'ton  continued  to  have  his  escort  of  shout 
ing  apprentices,  who  attended  him  home  every  evening. 


THE    UNION.  207 

But  the  posting  of  the  guards  overawed  opposition  both 
within  and  without  the  Parliament  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  remonstrances  of  the  opposition  party,  that  it  was  an 
encroachment  both  on  the  privileges  of  the  city  of  Ed- 
inburgh and  of  the  Parliament  itself,  the  hall  of  meeting 
continued  to  be  surrounded  by  a  military  force. 

The  temper  of  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  at  large  was 
equally  unfavourable  to  the  treaty  of  Union  with  that  oi 
the  capital.  Addresses  against  the  measure  were  poured 
into  tne  House  of  Parliament  from  the  several  shires, 
counties,  burshs,  towns,  and  parishes.  Men,  otherwise 
the  most  opposed  to  each  other,  Whig  and  Tory,  Jacobite 
and  Williamite,  Presbyterian,  Episcopalian,  and  Camero- 
nian,  all  agreed  in  expressing  their  detestation  of  the  treaty, 
and  imploring  the  Estates  of  Parliament  to  support  and 
preserve  entire  the  sovereignty  and  independence  of  the 
Crown  and  kingdom,  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
Parliament,  valiantly  maintained  through  so  many  ages, 
so  that  the  succeeding  generations  might  receive  them 
unimpaired  ;  in  which  good  cause  the  petitioners  offered 
to  concur  with  life  and  fortune.  While  addresses  of  this 
description  loaded  the  table  of  the  Parliament,  the  pro- 
moters of  the  Union  could  only  procure  from  a  few  per- 
sons in  the  town  of  Ayr  a  single  address  in  favour  of  the 
measure,  which  was  more  than  overbalanced  by  one  of 
an  opposite  tendency,  signed  by  almost  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  same  burgh. 

The  Unionists.,  secure  in  their  triumphant  majorities, 
treated  these  addresses  with  scorn.  The  Duke  of  Ar- 
gyle  said,  they  were  only  fit  to  be  made  kites  of,  while 
the  Earl  of  Marchmont  proposed  to  reject  them  as  sedi- 
tious, and,  as  he  alleged,  got  up  collusively,  and  express- 
ing the  sense  of  a  party  rather  than  of  the  nation.  To 
this  it  was  boldly  answered  by  Sir  James  Foulis  of  Col- 
linton,  that,  if  the  authenticity  of  the  addresses  were  chal- 
lenged, he  had  no  doubt  that  the  parties  subscribing  would 
attend  the  right  honourable  House  in  person,  and  enforce 
their  petitions  by  their  presence.  This  was  an  alarming 
suggestion,  and  ended  the  debate. 


208 


HIE    UNIOV. 


Amongst  these  addresses  against  the  Union,  there  w.'s 
one  from  the  commission  of  the  General  Assembly,  which 
was  supposed  to  speak  the  sentiments  of  most  of  the  cler- 
gymen of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  who  saw  great  danger 
to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  measure  under  delib- 
eration. But  much  of  the  heat  of  the  clergy's  opposition 
was  taken  off  by  the  Parliament's  passing  an  act  for  the 
Security  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  by  law  established 
at  the  Revolution,  and  making  this  declaration  an  integral 
part  of  the  treaty  of  Union.  This  cautionary  measure 
seems  to  have  been  deemed  sufficient ;  and  although  some 
presbyteries  sent  addresses  against  the  Union,  and  manv 
ministers  continued  to  preach  violently  on  the  subject,  yet 
the  great  body  of  the  clergy  ceased  to  vex  themselves  and 
others  with  the  alarming  tendency  of  the  measure,  so  far 
as  religion  and  church  discipline  were  concerned. 

But  the  Cameronians  remained  unsatisfied,  and  not 
having  forgotten  the  weight  which  their  arms  had  produced 
at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  they  conceived  that  such  a 
crisis  of  public  affairs  had  again  arrived  as  required  their 
active  interference.  Being  actually  embodied  and  pos- 
sessed of  arms,  they  wanted  nothing  save  hardy  and  dar- 
ing leaders  to  have  engaged  them  in  actual  hostilities. 
They  were  indeed  so  earnest  in  opposing  the  Union,  that 
several  hundreds  of  them  appeared  in  formal  array, 
marched  into  Dumfries,  and,  drawing  up  in  military  order 
around  the  cross  of  the  town,  solemnly  burnt  the  articles 
of  Union,  and  published  a  testimony,  declaring  that  the 
Commissioners  who  adjusted  them  must  have  been  either 
silly,  ignorant,  or  treacherous,  and  protesting,  that  if  an 
attempt  should  be  made  to  impose  the  treaty  on  the  na- 
tion by  force,  the  subscribers  were  determined  that  they 
:md  their  companions  would  not  become  tributaries  and 
bond  slaves  to  their  neighbours,  without  acquitting  them- 
Bolves  as  became  men  and  Christians.  After  publishing 
this  threatening  manifesto,  the  assembly  dispersed. 

Tin's  conduct  of  t  ae  Cameronians  led  to  a  formidable 
conspiracy.  One  Cunningham  of  Eckatt,  of  that  sect  al 
die  tune  of  the  Revolution,  afterward  a  settler  at  Darirn. 


THE    UMO.V.  209 

offered  his  services  to  the  heads  of  the  opposition  party, 
to  lead  to  Edinburgh  such  an  army  of  Cameronians  as 
should  disperse  the  Parliament,  and  break  off  the  treaty 
of  Union.  He  was  excited  with  money  and  promises, 
and  encouraged  to  collect  the  sense  of  the  country  on  his 
proposal. 

This  agent  found  the  west  country  ripe  for  revolt,  and 
ready  to  join  with  any  others  who  might  take  arms  against 
the  Government.  Cunningham  required  that  a  body  of 
the  Athole  Highlanders  should  secure  the  town  of  Stirling, 
in  order  to  keep  the  communication  open  between  the 
Jacobite  chiefs  and  the  army  of  western  insurgents,  whom 
he  himself  was  in  the  first  instance  to  command.  And 
had  this  design  taken  effect,  the  party  which  had  suffered 
so  much  during  the  late  reigns  of  the  Stewarts,  and  the 
mountaineers,  who  had  been  ready  agents  in  oppressing 
them,  would  have  been  seen  united  in  a  common  cause, 
so  strongly  did  the  universal  hatred  to  the  Union  over- 
power all  other  party  feelings  at  this  time. 

A  day  was  named  for  the  proposed  insurrection  in  the 
west,  on  which  Cunningham  affirmed  he  would  be  able  to 
assemble  at  Hamilton,  which  was  assigned  as  the  place  of 
rendezvous,  seven  or  eight  thousand  men,  all  having  guns 
and  swords,  several  hundreds  with  musket  and  bayonet, 
and  about  a  thousand  on  horseback  ;  with  which  army  he 
proposed  to  march  instantly  to  Edinburgh,  and  disperse 
the  Parliament.  The  Highlanders  were  to  rise  at  the  same 
time  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  country  in 
general  would  have  taken  arms.  Their  first  efforts  would 
probably  have  been  successful,  but  the  event  must  have 
been  a  bloody  renewal  of  the  wars  between  England  and 
Scotland. 

The  Scottish  Government  were  aware  of  the  danger, 
and  employed  among  the  Cameronians  two  or  three  agents 
of  their  own,  particularly  one  Ker  of  Kersland,  who  pos- 
sessed some  hereditary  influence  among  them.  The  pet- 
sons  so  employed  did  not  venture  to  cross  the  humour  of 
the  people,  or  argue  in  favour  of  the  Union  ;  but  thoy 


210  THK    UNION. 

endeavoured  in  various  ways  to  turn  the  suspicion  oi  the 
Cameronians  upon  the  Jacobite  nobility  and  gentry,  tc 
awaken  hostile  recollections  of  the  persecutions  they  had 
undergone,  in  which  the  Highlanders  had  been  willing  ac- 
tors, and  to  start  other  causes  of  jealousy  amongst  people 
who  were  more  influenced  by  the  humour  of  the  moment 
than  any  reasoning  which  could  be  addressed  to  them. 

Notwithstanding  the  underhand  practices  of  Kersland, 
and  although  Cunningham  himself  is  said  to  have  been 
gained  by  the  Government,  the  scheme  of  rising  went 
forward,  and  the  day  of  rendezvous  was  appointed  ;  \\  hen 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  either  reluctant  to  awaken  the 
flames  of  civil  war,  or  doubting  the  strength  of  Eckatt's 
party,  and  even  its  leader's  fidelity,  sent  messengers  into 
the  west  country  to  counte/mand  and  postpone  the  intend- 
ed insurrection  ;  in  which  he  so  far  succeeded,  that  only 
four  hundred  men  appeared  at  the  rendezvous,  instead  of 
twice  as  many  thousands  ;  and  these,  finding  their  pur- 
pose frustrated,  dispersed  peaceably. 

Another  danger  which  threatened  the  Government 
passed  as  easily  over.  An  address  against  the  Union  had 
been  proposed  at  Glasgow,  where,  as  in  every  place  ol 
importance  in  Scotland,  the  treaty  was  highly  unpopular. 
The  magistrates,  acting  under  the  directions  of  the  Lord 
Advocate,  endeavoured  to  obstruct  the  proposed  petition, 
or  at  least  to  resist  its  being  expressed  in  the  name  of  the 
city.  At  this  feverish  time  there  was  a  national  fast  ap- 
pointed to  be  held,  and  a  popular  preacher  made  choice 
of  a  text  from  Ezra,  ch.  viii.  21,  "  Then  1  proclaimed 
a  fast  there,  at  the  river  of  Ahava,  that  we  might  afflict 
ourselves  before  our  God,  to  seek  of  him  a  right  way  lor 
us  and  for  our  little  ones,  and  for  all  our  substance."  Ad- 
dressing himself  to  the  people,  who  were  a'ready  suffi- 
ciently irritated,  the  preacher  told  them  that  prayers  would 
riot  do,  addresses  would  not  do — prayer  was  indeed  a 
duty,  but  it  must  be  seconded  hy  exertions  of  a  very  differ- 
ent nature ;  "  wherefore,"  he  concluded,  "  up,  and  be 
valiant  for  the  city  of  our  God." 

The   populace  of  the  city,  taking  this  as  a  direct  en- 


THE    UNION.  21  J 

couiagement  to  insurrection,  assembled  in  a  state  of  up- 
roar attacked  and  dispersed  the  guards,  plundered  the 
houses  of  the  citizens  of  arms  ;  in  short  took  possession 
of  the  town,  and  had  every  body's  life  and  goods  at  their 
mercy.  No  person  of  any  consequence  appeared  at  the 
head  of  these  rioters  ;  and,  after  having  put  themselves 
under  the  command  of  a  mechanic  named  .Finlay,  wlic 
had  formerly  been  a  sergeant,  they  sent  small  parties  tc 
the  neighbouring  towns  to  invite  them  to  follow  their  ex- 
ample. In  this  they  were  unsuccessful  ;  the  proclama- 
tions of  Parliament  and  the  adjournment  of  the  rendez- 
vous appointed  by  the  Cameronians,  having  considerably 
checked  the  disposition  to  insurrection.  In  short,  the 
Glasgow  riot  died  away,  and  the  insurgents  prevented 
bloodshed  by  dispersing  quietly  ;  Finlay  and  another  ol 
their  leaders  were  seized  by  a  party  of  dragoons  from 
Edinburgh,  conveyed  to  that  city,  and  lodged  in  the 
castle.  And  thus  was  extinguished  a  hasty  fire,  which 
might  otherwise  have  occasioned  a  great  conflagration. 

To  prevent  the  repetition  of  such  dangerous  examples 
as  the  rendezvous  at  Hamilton  and  the  tumults  at  Glas- 
gow, the  Parliament  came  to  the  resolution  of  suspending 
that  clause  of  the  Act  of  Security  which  appointed  gen- 
eral military  musters  throughout  Scotland  ;  and  enacted 
instead,  that  in  consideration  of  the  tumults  which  had 
taken  place,  all  assembling  in  arms,  without  the  Queen's 
special  order,  should  be  punished  as  an  act  of  high  treason. 
This  being  made  public  by  proclamation,  put  a  stop  to 
future  attempts  at  rising. 

The  project  of  breaking  off  the  treaty  by  violence  be- 
ing now  wholly  at  an  end,  those  who  opposed  the  meas- 
ure determined  upon  a  more  safe  and  moderate  attempt  to 
frustrate  it.  It  was  resolved,  that  as  many  of  the  nobility, 
barons,  and  gentry  of  the  realm  as  were  hostile  to  the 
Union,  should  assemble  at  Edinburgh,  and  join  in  a  peace- 
ful, but  firm  and  personal  remonstrance  to  the  Lord  Coni- 
rnissioner,  praying  that  the  obnoxious  measure  might  be 
postponed  until  the  subscribers  should  receive  an  answer 
to  a  national  address  which  they  designed  to  presnit  to 


THK    UNIO.V. 

the  Queen  at  this  interesting  crisis.  It  was  supposed  lha 
the  intended  application  to  the  Commissioner  would  be 
BO  strongly  supported,  that  either  the  Scottish  Government 
would  not  venture  to  favour  a  Union  in  the  face  of  such 
general  opposition,  or  that  the  English  ministers  them- 
selves might  take  the  alarm,  and  become  doubtful  of  ihe 
efficacy  or  durability  of  a  treaty,  to  which  the  bulk  of 
Scotland  seemed  so  totally  averse.  About  four  hundred 
nobles  and  gentlemen  of  the  first  distinction  assembled  at 
Edinburgh,  for  the  purpose  of  attending  the  Commission- 
er with  the  proposed  remonstrance  ;  arid  an  address  was 
drawn  up,  praying  her  Majesty  to  withdraw  her  counte- 
nance from  the  treaty,  and  to  call  a  new  Parliament. 

When  the  day  was  appointed  for  executing  the  intended 
plan,  it  was  interrupted  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who 
would  on  no  terms  agree  to  proceed  with  it,  unless  a  clause 
was  inserted  in  the  address  expressive  of  the  willingness 
of  the  subscribers  to  settle  the  succession  on  the  House 
of  Hanover.  This  proposal  was  totally  at  variance  with 
the  sentiments  of  the  Jacobite  part  of  those  who  support- 
ed the  address,  and  occasioned  great  and  animated  dis- 
cussions among  them,  and  considerable  delay.  In  the 
meanwhile,  the  Commissioner,  observing  the  city  unusu- 
ally crowded  with  persons  of  condition,  and  obtaining  in- 
formation of  the  purpose  for  which  so  many  gentlemen 
had  repaired  to  the  capital,  made  an  application  to  Parlia- 
ment, setting  forth  that  a  convocation  had  been  held  at 
Edinburgh  of  various  persons,  under  pretence  of  requiring 
personal  answers  to  their  addresses  to  Parliament,  which 
was  likely  to  endanger  the  public  peace  ;  and  then  ob- 
tained a  proclamation  against  any  meetings  under  such 
pretexts  during  the  sitting  of  Parliament,  which  he  rep- 
resented as  both  inexpedient  and  contrary  to  law. 

While  the  Lord  Commissioner  was  thus  strengthening 
his  party,  the  anti-unionists  were  at  discord  among  them- 
selves. The  Dukes  of  Hamilton  and  Athole  quarrelled 
on  account  of  the  interruption  given  by  the  former  to  the 
original  plan  of  remonstrance  ;  and  the  country  gentle* 
aien  who  had  attended  on  their  summons,  returned  home 


THIS    UMOX.  21? 

mortified,  disappointed,  and,  as   many  of  them  thought, 
deceived  by  their  leaders. 

Time  was  meanwhile  flying  fast,  and  Parliament,  in 
discussing  the  separate  articles  of  the  Union,  had  reach- 
ed the  twenty-second,  being  that  designed  to  fix  the  amount 
of  the  representation  which  Scotland  was  to  possess  in  the 
British  Parliament,  and,  on  account  of  the  inadequacy 
of  such  representation,  the  most  obnoxious  of  the  whole. 

The  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  still  was,  or  affected  to  be, 
firmly  opposed  to  the  treaty,  now  assembled  the  leaders 
of  the  opposition,  and  entreated  them  to  forget  all  former 
errors  and  mismanagement,  and  to  concur  in  one  common 
effort  for  the  independence  of  Scotland.  He  then  pro- 
posed that  the  Marquis  of  Annandale  should  open  their 
proceedings,  by  renewing  a  motion  formerly  made  for  the 
succession  of  the  crown  in  the  House  of  Hanover,  which 
was  sure  to  be  rejected  if  coupled  with  any  measure  in- 
terrupting the  treaty  of  Union.  Upon  this  the  Duke  pro- 
posed, that  all  the  opposers  of  the  Union,  after  joining  in 
a  very  strong  protest,  should  publicly  secede  from  the 
Parliament  ;  in  which  case  it  was  likely,  either  that  the 
government  party  would  hesitate  to  proceed  farther  in  a 
matter  which  was  to  effect  such  total  changes  in  the  con- 
stitution of  Scotland,  or  that  the  English  might  become  of 
opinion,  that  they  could  not  safely  carry  on  a  national 
treaty  of  such  consequence  with  a  mere  faction,  or  party 
of  the  Parliament,  when  deserted  by  so  many  persons  of 
weight  and  influence. 

The  Jacobites  objected  to  this  course  of  proceeding, 
on  account  of  the  preliminary  motion,  which  implied  a 
disposition  to  call  the  House  of  Hanover  to  the  success- 
ion, provided  the  Union  were  departed  from  by  the  Gov- 
ernment The  Duke  of  Hamilton  replied,  that  as  the 
proposal  was  certain  to  be  rejected,  it  would  draw  with  i> 
no  obligation  on  those  by  whom  it  was  made.  He  said 
that  such  an  offer  would  destroy  the  argument  for  forcing 
on  the  Union,  which  had  so  much  weight  in  England, 
where  it  was  believed  that  if  the  treaty  did  not  take  place 
the  kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland  would  pass  tudit- 


214  THE    UNION. 

ferent  monarchs.  He  then  declared  frankly,  that  if  the 
English  should  not  discontinue  pressing  forward  the  Union 
alter  the  formal  protestation  and  succession  which  lie  pro 
posed,  he  would  join  with  the  Jacobites  for  calling  in  the 
son  of  James  II.,  and  was  willing  to  venture  as  far  as  any 
one  for  that  measure. 

It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  was 
not  serious  in  this  proposal  ;  and  there  seems  to  he  little 
doubt  that  if  the  whole  body  opposing  the  Union  had 
withdrawn  in  the  manner  proposed,  the  Commissioner 
would  have  given  up  the  treaty,  and  prorogued  the  Par- 
liament. But  the  Duke  lost  courage,  on  its  being  inti- 
mated to  him,  as  the  report  goes,  by  the  Lord  High  Com- 
missioner, in  a  private  interview,  that  his  Grace  would  he 
held  personally  responsible,  if  the  treaty  of  Union  was 
interrupted  by  adoption  of  the  advice  which  he  had  given, 
and  that  he  should  be  made  to  suffer  for  it  in  his  English 
property.  Such  at  least  is  the  general  report ;  and  such 
an  interview  could  be  managed  without  difficulty,  as  both 
these  distinguished  persons  were  lodged  in  the  Palace  of 
Holyrood. 

Whether  acting  from  natural  instability,  whether  intim- 
idated by  the  threats  of  Queensberry,  or  dreading  to  en- 
counter the  difficulties  when  at  hand,  which  he  had  de- 
spised when  at  a  distance,  it  is  certain  that  Hamilton  was 
the  first  to  abandon  the  course  which  he  had  himself  re- 
commended. On  the  morning  appointed  for  the  execution 
of  their  plan,  when  the  members  of  opposition  had  mus- 
tered all  their  forces,  and  were  about  to  go  to  Parliament, 
attended  by  great  numbers  of  gentlemen  and  citizens,  pre- 
pared to  assist  them  if  there  should  be  any  attempt  to 
arrest  any  of  their  number,  they  learned  that  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  was  so  much  afflicted  with  the  toothach,  that  he 
could  not  attend  the  House  that  morning.  "His  friends 
hastened  to  his  chambers,  and  remonstrated  with  him  so 
bitterly  on  this  conduct,  that  he  at  length  came  down  to 
the  House  ;  but  it  was  only  to  astonish  them  by  asking 
whom  they  had  pitched  upon  to  present  their  protestation. 
They  answered,  with  extreme  surprise,  that  they  had 


THE    UNIOJf.  215 

reckoned  on  his  Grace,  as  the  person  of  the  first  rank  in 
Scotland,  taking  the  lead  in  the  measure  which  he  had 
himself  proposed.  The  Duke  persisted,  however,  in  re- 
fusing to  expose  himself  to  the  displeasure  of  the  court 
by  being  foremost  in  breaking  their  favourite  measure,  but 
offered  to  second  any  one  whom  the  party  might  appoint 
to  offer  the  protest.  During  this  altercation  the  business  of 
the  day  was  so  far  advanced,  that  the  vote  was  put  and 
carried  on  the  disputed  article  respecting  the  representa- 
tion, and  the  opportunity  of  carrying  the  scheme  into  ef- 
fect was  totally  lost. 

The  members  who  had  hitherto  opposed  the  Union, 
oeing  thus  three  times  disappointed  in  their  measures  by 
the  unexpected  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  now 
felt  themselves  deserted  and  betrayed.  Shortly  after- 
wards, most  of  them  retired  altogether  from  their  attend- 
ance on  Parliament  ;  and  those  who  favoured  the  treaty 
were  suffered  to  proceed  in  their  own  way,  little  encum- 
bered either  by  remonstrance  or  opposition. 

Almost  the  only  remarkable  change  in  the  articles  of 
the  Union,  besides  that  relating  to  Church  government, 
was  made  to  quiet  the  minds  of  the  common  people,  dis- 
turbed, as  I  have  already  mentioned,  by  rumours  that  the 
Scottish  regalia  were  to  be  sent  into  England.  A  special 
article  was  inserted  into  the  treaty,  declaring  that  they 
should  on  no  occasion  be  removed  from  Scotland.  At 
the  same  time,  lest  the  sight  of  these  symbols  of  national 
sovereignty  should  irritate  the  jealous  feelings  of  the  Scot- 
tish people,  they  were  removed  from  the  public  view,  and 
secured  in  a  strong  chamber,  called  the  Crown-room,  in 
the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  where  they  remained  so  long 
in  obscurity,  that  their  very  existence  was  generally  doubt- 
ed. But  his  present  Majesty  having  directed  that  a  Com- 
mission should  be  issued  to  search  after  these  venerable 
relics,  they  were  found  in  safety  in  the  place  where  hey 
had  been  deposited,  and  are  now  made  visible  to  the  public 
under  proper  precautions. 

It  had  been  expected  that  the  treaty  of  Union  would 
have  mrt  with  delays  or  alterations  in  the  English  Par- 


216  THE    17NIO.V. 

liament.  But  it  was  approved  of  there  by  a  large  major- 
ity ;  and  the  exemplification  or  copy  was  sent  down  to  he 
registered  by  the  Scottish  Parliament.  This  was  done 
on  the  iI5th  March  ;  and  on  the  22d  April,  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Scotland  adjourned  for  ever.  Seafield,  the  Chan- 
cellor, on  an  occasion  which  every  Scotchman  ought  to 
have  considered  as  a  melancholy  one,  behaved  himself 
with  a  brutal  levity,  which  in  more  patriotic  times  would 
have  cost  him  his  life  on  the  spot,  and  said  that  "  there 
was  an  end  of  an  auld  sang." 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1707.  the  Union  took  place,  amid 
the  dejection  and  despair  which  attends  on  the  downfall 
of  an  ancient  state,  and  under  a  sullen  expression  of  dis- 
content, which  was  far  from  promising  the  course  of  pros- 
perity which  the  treaty  finally  produced. 

And  here  I  must  point  out  to  you  at  some  length,  that, 
though  there  never  could  be  a  doubt  that  the  Union  in 
itself  was  a  most  desirable  event,  yet  all  parties  concerned, 
by  the  erroneous  mode  in  which  it  was  pushed  on  and 
opposed,  threw  such  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  benefits 
it  was  calculated  to  produce,  as  to  interpose  a  longer  in- 
terval of  years  betwixt  the  date  of  the  treaty  and  the 
national  advantages  arising  out  of  it,  than  the  term  spent 
by  the  Jews  in  the  wilderness  ere  they  attained  the  prom- 
ised land.  In  both  cases  the  frowardness  and  passions  ot 
men  rejected  the  blessings  which  Providence  held  out  to 
them. 

To  understand  this,  you  must  know,  that  while  the  va- 
rious plans  for  interrupting  the  treaty  were  agitated  with- 
out doors,  the  debates  in  Parliament  were  of  the  most 
violent  kind.  "  It  resembled,"  said  an  eye-witness,  "  not 
the  strife  of  tongues,  but  the  clash  of  arms  ;  and  the  hatred, 
rage,  and  reproach  which  we  exhausted  on  each  other, 
seemed  to  be  those  of  civil  war  rather  than  of  political 
discussion."  Much  talent  was  displayed  on  both  sides. 
The  promoters  of  the  Union  founded  their  arguments  not 
merely  on  the  advantage,  but  the  absolute  necessity,  ol 
associating  the  independence  of  the  two  nations  for  theii 
mutual  honour  and  defence  ;  arguing,  that  otherwise  they 


THE    UNION.  2  IT 

must  renew  the  scenes  of  past  ages,  rendered  dreadful  by 
the  recollection  of  three  hundred  and  fourteen  battles 
fought  between  two  kindred  nations,  and  more  than  a  mil- 
lion of  men  slain  on  both  sides.  The  imaginary  sacrifice 
of  independent  sovereignty,  was  represented  as  being  in 
reality  an  escape  from  the  petty  tyranny  of  their  own  pro- 
vincial aristocracy,  and  a  most  desirable  opportunity  of 
having  the  ill-defined,  and  worse  administered,  government 
of  Scotland,  blended  with  that  of  a  nation,  the  most  jeal- 
ous of  her  rights  and  liberties  which  the  world  ever  saw. 

While  the  Unionists  pointed  out  the  general  utility  of 
the  amalgamation  of  the  two  nations  into  one,  the  oppo- 
sition dwelt  on  the  immediate  disgrace  and  degradation 
which  the  measure  must  instantly  and  certainly  impose  on 
Scotland,  and  the  distant  and  doubtful  nature  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  she  was  to  derive  from  it. 

Lord  Belhaven,  in  a  celebrated  speech,  which  made 
the  strongest  impression  on  the  audience,  declared  that  he 
saw,  in  prophetic  vision,  the  peers  of  Scotland,  whose 
ancestors  had  raised  tribute  in  England,  now  walking  in 
the  Court  of  Requests  like  so  many  English  attorneys, 
laying  aside  their  swords  lest  self-defence  should  be  called 
murder — he  saw  the  Scottish  barons  with  their  lips  pad- 
locked, to  avoid  the  penalties  of  unknown  laws — he  saw 
the  Scottish  lawyers  struck  mute  and  confounded  at  being 
subjected  to  the  intricacies  and  technical  jargon  of  an 
unknown  jurisprudence — he  saw  the  merchants  excluded 
from  trade  by  the  English  monopolies — the  artisans  ruined 
for  want  of  custom — the  gentry  reduced  to  indigence — 
the  lower  ranks  to  starvation  and  beggary.  "  But  above 
all,  my  lord,"  continued  the  orator,  "  I  think  I  see  our 
ancient  mother  Caledonia,  like  Caesar,  sitting  in  the  midst 
of  our  Senate,  ruefully  looking  round  her,  covering  her- 
self with  her  royal  mantle,  awaiting  the  fatal  blow,  and 
breathing  out  her  last  with  the  exclamation,  '  And  thou 
too,  my  son  !'  ' 

These  prophetic  sounds  made  the  deepest  impression 
on  the  House,  until  the  effect  was  in  some  degree  dispelled 

908 


21  S  THE    UNIOW. 

by  Lord  Marchmont,  who,  rising  to  reply,  said,  he  too  had 
been  much  struck  by  the  noble  Lord's  vision,  but  that  he 
conceived  the  exposition  of  it  might  be  given  in  a  few 
words,  "  I  awoke,  and  behold  it  was  a  dream."  But 
though  Lord  Belhaven's  prophetic  harangue  might  be 
termed  in  one  sense  a  vision,  it  was  one  which  continued 
to  exist  for  many  years  ;  nor  was  it  until  half  a  century 
had  passed  away,  that  the  Union  began  to  produce  those 
advantages  to  Scotland  which  its  promoters  had  fondly 
hoped,  and  the  fruits  of  which  the  present  generation  has 
so  fully  reaped.  We  must  seek  in  the  temper  of  the  va- 
rious parties  interested  in  carrying  on  and  concluding  this 
great  treaty,  the  reasons  which  for  so  many  years  pre- 
vented the  incalculable  benefits  which  it  was  expected  to 
bestow,  and  which  have  been  since  realized. 

The  first,  and  perhaps  most  fatal  error,  arose  out  of  the 
conduct  and  feelings  of  the  English,  who  were  generally 
incensed  at  the  conduct  of  the  Scotch  respecting  the  Act 
of  Security,  and  in  the  precipitate  execution  of  Green 
and  his  companions,  whom  their  countrymen,  with  some 
reason,  regarded  as  men  murdered  on  a  vague  accusation, 
merely  because  they  were  Englishmen.  This,  indeed, 
was  partly  true  ;  but  though  the  Scotch  acted  cruelly,  it 
should  have  been  considered  that  they  had  received  much 
provocation,  and  were  in  fact  only  revenging,  though  rashly 
and  unjustly,  the  injuries  of  Darien  and  Glencoe.  But 
the  times  were  unfavourable  to  a  temperate  view  of  the 
subject  in  either  country.  The  cry  was  general  through- 
out England,  that  Scotland  should  be  conquered  by  force 
of  arms,  and  secured  by  garrisons  and  forts,  as  in  the 
days  of  Cromwell.  Or,  if  she  was  to  be  admitted  to  a 
Union,  there  was  a  general  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Eng- 
lish to  compel  her  to  receive  terms  as  indifferent  as  could 
be  forced  upon  an  inferior  and  humbled  people. 

These  were  not  the  sentiments  of  a  profound  states- 
man, and  could  not  be  those  of  Godolphin.  He  must 
have  known,  that  the  mere  fact  of  accomplishing  a  treaty 
could  no  more  produce  the  cordial  and  intimate  state  ol 
unity  which  was  the  point  he  aimed  at,  than  the  putting  a 


THE    UJVION.  219 

pair  of  quarrelsome  hounds  into  the  same  (ouples  could 
reconcile  the  animals  to  each  other.  It  may,  therefore, 
be  supposed,  that,  left  to  himself,  so  great  a  statesman 
would  have  tried  by  the  most  gentle  means,  to  reconcile 
Scotland  to  the  projected  measure  ;  that  he  would  have 
been  studious  to  efface  every  thing  that  appeared  humil- 
iating in  the  surrender  of  national  independence  ;  would 
have  laboured  to  smooth  those  difficulties  which  prevented 
the  Scotch  from  engaging  in  the  English  trade  ;  and  have 
given  her  a  more  adequate  representation  in  the  national 
Parliament,  which,  if  arranged  according  to  her  propor- 
tion of  public  expenses  would  only  have  made  the  incon- 
siderable addition  of  fifteen  members  to  the  House  of 
Commons.  In  fine,  the  English  minister  would  probably 
have  endeavoured  to  arrange  the  treaty  on  such  terms  of 
advantage  for  the  poorer  country,  as  should,  upon  its  being 
adopted,  immediately  prove  to  the  Scotch,  by  its  effects, 
that  it  was  what  they  ought  for  their  own  sakes  to  have 
desired  and  concurred  in.  In  this  manner,  the  work  of 
many  years  would  have  been,  to  a  certain  degree  antici- 
pated, and  the  two  nations  would  have  felt  themselves 
united  in  interest  and  in  affection  also,  soon  after  they  had 
become  nominally  one  people.  Whatever  England  might 
have  sacrificed  in  this  way,  would  have  been  gained  by 
Great  Britain,  of  which  England  must  necessarily  be  the 
predominant  part,  and  as  such  would  receive  the  greatest 
share  of  benefit  by  whatever  promoted  the  good  of  the 
whole. 

But  though  Godolphin's  wisdom  might  have  carried 
him  to  such  conclusions,  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
the  English  nation  would  not  have  permitted  him  to  act 
upon  them.  •  They  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  a  mode  of 
subjecting  entirely  a  nation,  which  had  been  an  old  enemy 
aiid  a  troublesome  friend,  and  they,  very  in) politically, 
were  more  desirous  to  subdue  Scotland  than  to  reconcile 
her.  In  this  point  the  English  statesman  committed  a 
gross  error,  though  rendered  perhaps  inevitable,  by  the 
temper  acd  prejudices  of  the  nation. 


220  THE    UNION. 

The  Scottish  supporters  of  the  Union  might,  ou  their 
part,  have  made  a  stand  for  better  terms  in  behalf  of  their 
country.  And  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  the  Eng- 
lish would  have  broken  off  a  treaty  of  such  importance, 
either  for  the  addition  of  a  few  members,  or  for  such  ad- 
vantages of  commerce  as  Scotland  might  reasonably  hav6 
demanded.  But  these  Scottish  Commissioners,  or  a  large 
part  of  them,  had,  unhappily,  negotiated  so  well  for  them- 
selves, that  they  had  lost  all  right  of  interfering  on  the 
part  of  their  country.  We  have  already  explained  the 
nature  of  the  equivalent,  by  which  a  sum  of  four  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  or  thereabouts,  presently  advanced  by 
England,  but  to  be  repaid  out  of  the  Scottish  revenue 
within  fifteen  years,  was  to  be  distributed,  partly  to  repay 
the  losses  sustained  by  the  Darien  Company,  partly  to 
pay  arrears  of  public  salaries  in  Scotland,  most  of  which 
were  due  to  members  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  j  and 
finally,  to  satisfy  such  claims  of  damage  arising  out  of  the 
Union,  as  might  be  stated  by  any  one  whose  support  was 
worth  having. 

The  distribution  of  this  money  constituted  the  charm 
by  which  refractory  Scottish  members  were  reconciled  to 
the  Union.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  sum  of  thirty 
thousand  pounds,  which  was  apportioned  to  the  Commis- 
sioners who  originally  laid  the  basis  of  the  treaty.  I  may 
add,  there  was  another  sum  of  twenty  thousand  pounds, 
employed  to  secure  to  the  measures  of  the  court  the  party 
called  the  Squadrone  Volante.  The  account  of  the  mode 
in  which  this  last  sum  was  distributed  has  been  published, 
and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  descendants  of  the 
noble  lords  and  honourable  gentlemen  who  accepted  this 
gratification,  would  be  most  shocked  at  the  general  fact  of 
their  ancestors  being  corrupted,  or  scandalized  at  the 
paltry  amount  of  the  bribe.  One  noble  lord  accepted  of  so 
low  a  sum  as  eleven  guineas,  and  the  bargain  was  the  more 
hard,  as  he  threw  his  religion  into  the  bargain,  and  from 
Catholic  turned  Protestant,  to  make  his  vote  a  good  one, 

Other  disgraceful  gratuities  might  be  mentioned,  anu 
there  were  manv  more  which  cannot  be  traced.  The 


THE    UNION.  221 

treasure  for  making  good  the  equivalent  was  sent  down  in 
wagons  from  England,  to  be  deposited  in  the  Castle  ol 
Edinburgh,  and  never  surely  was  such  an  importation  re- 
ceived  with  such  marks  of  popular  indignation.  The 
dragoons  who  guarded  the  wains  were  loaded  with  exe- 
crations, and  the  carters,  nay,  even  their  poor  horses,  were 
nearly  pelted  to  death  for  being  accessory  in  bringing  to 
Edinburgh  the  price  of  the  independence  of  the  kingdom. 

The  statesmen  who  accepted  of  these  gratuities,  under 
whatever  name  disguised,  were  marked  by  the  hatred  of 
the  country,  and  did  not  escape  reproach  even  in  the 
bosom  of  their  own  families.*  The  advantage  of  their 
services  was  lost  by  the  general  contempt  which  they  had 
incurred.  And  here  1  may  mention,  that  while  carrying 
on  the  intrigues  which  preceded  the  passing  of  the  Union, 
those  who  favoured  that  measure  were  obliged  to  hold 
their  meetings  in  secret  and  remote  places  of  rendezvous, 
lest  they  should  have  been  assaulted  by  the  rabble.  There 
is  a  subterranean  apartment  in  the  High  Street,  (No.  177,) 
called  the  Union-Cellar,  from  its  being  one  of  their  haunts ; 
and  the  pavilion  in  the  garden  belonging  to  the  Earl  ot 
Murray's  hotel  in  the  Canongate,  is  distinguished  as  hav- 
ing been  used  for  this  purpose. 

Men  who  had  thus  been  bought  and  sold,  forfeited  every 
right  to  interfere  in  the  terms  which  England  insisted  up- 
on, and  Scotland,  therefore,  lost  that  support,  which,  had 
these  statesmen  been  as  upright  and  respectable  as  some 
of  them  were  able  and  intelligent,  could  not  have  failed 
to  be  efficacious.  But,  despised  by  the  English,  and  de- 
tested by  their  own  country,  fettered,  as  Lord  Belhaven 
expressed  it,  by  the  golden  chain  of  equivalents,  the 
Unionists  had  lost  all  freedom  of  remonstrance,  and  had 
no  alternative  left,  save  that  of  fulfilling  the  unworthy  bar- 
gain they  had  made. 

The  opposition  party  also  had  their  share  of  error  on 

*  The  Chancellor,  Lord  Seafield,  objected  to  his  brother,  Colonel  I'iUncx 
Og-ilvie,  that  he  derogated  from  his  rank,  by  traflirking  in  cattle  in  ~omo 
extent.  "  Take  your  own  tale  hame,  my  lord  ;md  brother,"  answered  tin; 
Colonel,  'n  his  Angus-shire  dialect.  "  I  only  sell  notet  (nolt,)  but  you  seJ' 
uaations  ' 


222  THE    UNIOX. 

this  occasion.  If  they  had  employed  a  part  of  tiat  zea 
\viili  which  they  vindicated  the  shadowy  rights  of  Scot- 
land's independence,  (which  after  all,  resolved  itself  into 
the  title  of  being  governed  like  a  province,  by  a  viceroy,) 
in  order  to  oDtain  some  improvement  upon  the  more  un- 
favourable clauses  of  the  treaty ;  if,  in  other  words,  they 
had  tried  to  make  a  more  advantageous  agreement  instead 
.rf  breaking  it  off  entirely,  they  might  perhaps  have  gained 
considerable  advantages  for  Scotland.  But  the  greater 
part  of  the  anti-unionists  were  also  Jacobites,  and  there- 
fore, far  from  desiring  to  render  the  treaty  more  unex- 
ceptionable, it  was  their  object  that  it  should  be  as  odious 
to  the  people  of  Scotland  as  possible,  so  that  the  discontent 
excited  by  it,  should  turn  to  the  advantage  of  the  exiled 
family. 

Owing  to  all  these  adverse  circumstances,  the  interests 
of  Scotland  were  considerably  neglected  in  the  treaty  ol 
Union  ;  and  the  nation,  instead  of  regarding  it  as  an  iden- 
tification of  the  interests  of  both  kingdoms,  considered  it 
as  a  total  surrender  of  their  independence,  by  their  false 
and  corrupted  statesmen,  into  the  hand  of  their  proud  and 
powerful  rival.  The  gentry  of  Scotland  looked  on  them- 
selves as  robbed  of  their  natural  consequence,  and  dis- 
graced in  the  eyes  ol'  the  country  ;  the  merchants  and 
tradesmen  lost  the  direct  trade  between  Scotland  and  for- 
eign countries,  without  being  for  a  length  of  time  able  to 
procure  a  share  in  that  with  the  English  colonies.  The 
populace  in  ihe  towns,  and  the  peasants  throughout  the 
kingdom,  conceived  the  most  implacable  dislike  to  the 
Union  ;  factions,  hitherto  most  bitterly  opposed  to  each 
other,  seemed  ready  to  rise  on  the  first  opportunity  which 
might  occur  for  breaking  it ;  and  the  cause  of  the  Stewart 
family  gained  a  host  of  new  adherents,  more  from  dislike 
to  the  Union  than  any  partiality  to  the  exiled  prince.  A 
long  train  of  dangers  and  difficulties  was  the  consequence, 
which  tore  Scotland  to  pieces  with  civil  discord,  and  ex- 
posed England  also  to  much  suffering.  Three  rebellions, 
two  of  which  assumed  a  very  alarming  character,  may, 
w  a  great  measure  be  5et  down  to  the  unpopularity  o/ 


THE    UNION.  223 

this  national  act ;  and  the  words,  "  Prosperity  to  Scot- 
land, and  No  Union,"  is  the  favourite  inscription  to  be 
found  on  Scottish  sword-blades,  betwixt  1707  and  J7K> 

But  although  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  mankind 
could  for  a  time  delay  and  interrupt  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  this  great  national  measure,  it  was  not  the 
gracious  will  of  Providence  that,  being  thus  deferred,  they 
should  be  ultimately  lost. 

The  unfortunate  insurrection  of  1745-6,  destroyed  en- 
tirely the  hopes  of  the  Scottish  Jacobites,  and  occasioned 
the  abolition  of  the  hereditary  jurisdictions  and  military 
tenures,  which  had  been  at  once  dangerous  to  the  gov- 
ernment, and  a  great  source  of  oppression  to  the  subject. 
This,  though  attended  with  much  individual  suffering,  was 
the  final  means  of  at  once  removing  the  badges  of  feudal 
tyranny — extinguishing  civil  war,  and  assimilated  Scotland 
to  the  sister-country.  After  this  period,  the  advantages 
of  the  Union  were  gradually  perceived  and  fully  expe- 
rienced. 

It  was  not,  however,  till  the  accession  of  his  late  Ma- 
jesty, th-it  the  beneficial  effects  of  this  great  national  treaty 
were  generally  felt.  From  that  period  there  was  awaken- 
ed a  spirit  of  industry  formerly  unknown  in  Scotland  ; 
and  ever  since,  the  two  kingdoms  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, incalculably  to  their  mutual  benefit,  have  been  grad- 
ually forgetting  former  subjects  of  discord,  and  uniting 
cordially,  as  o*ne  people,  in  the  improvement  and  defence 
of  the  island  which  they  inhabit. 

This  happy  change  from  discord  to  friendship, — from 
war  to  peace,  and  from  poverty  and  distress  to  national 
prosperity,  was  not  attained  without  much  peril  and  haz- 
ard ;  and  should  1  continue  these  volumes  from  the  period 
of  the  Union  to  that  of  the  Accession  of  George  the  Third, 
I  can  promise  you,  the  addition  will  be  neither  the  least 
interesting,  nor  the  least  useful  of  your  Grandfather's 
labours  in  your  behalf. 


FINIS. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

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